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8 COO 

DOG SWAMP 

NEWS ft POST OFFICE 


TERTAINMENT MAG AZIN 


Past, Present & Future 

includina OUAKE 2 


9 771 326 5 64002 


DARK REIGN GIVEAWAY 


Special price 
this issue 


AUSTRALIAN 


PIUS GAMES CD ROM 


R€IGN 


/or Id’ Domination 
ustraiigikStylG 

■Mk — 




TlHlTnlTiTiEllI 


^BfflpTnche 3 

• Redneck Rampage 

•Blood 

WIN COPIES! 
DEREK SMART 

Why the Battlecruiser 
guy is so angry 


REDNECK RA|/I PAGE 

Beavis & Butthead 
X-COM 3 

You Don’t Know Jack: Movies 
Realms of the Haunting 







LOTUS. . . 


bad ... sexy ... bitch 

WANNA PLAY? 





IpfiBTpilPPfiT 

ALSO AVAILABLE PC CO ROM 


Exclusively distributed by 



Created by Kronos Digital Entertainment. Inc. © Kronos Digital Entertainment. Inc All rights reserved Artwork and design © Playmates Interactive Entertainment. Inc 
PIE® is a reaistered trademark of Plavmates Interactive Entertainment. Inc. All riahts reserved 




A R N I l\l G 


METRO GAMES UNLEASHES THE SECRET OF 
HE JEDI MIND TRICK TO RETAILERS AND CONSUMERS! 


customers “What’s the hottest game around, Ken?" 

retailer: “You need the latest from LucasArts Luke!” 

customer: “I need the latest from LucasArts Ken! Show me what you’ve got!” 


Af ABOUT TO Vtm _ 





Feel the retail Force oF the new range oF LucasArts Titles that are 
now available From Metro Games (03) 9329 2999 

™ & © 1997 Lucasfilm Ltd. All rights reserved. Used under authorisation. 






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LUflRCRflFT 11? 

Ancient History! 



AcliVisioH 

www.activision.com 



EflTTL€GRDUND R€flL15m 

Hide units behind hills or in dense forests. 
Climb to higher terrain to improve your view of 
surrounding territory. Realistic terrain dynamically 
affects unit movement, so units move faster 
downhill and slower through swamps. 



PLflY€R“CDNT'RDLLflEL€ 

Unit -HI 

Determine each unit's behaviour in combat. 
Place a unit on sentry duty, have it harass the 
enemy, or send it on a suicide mission. 

Set waypoints to launch simultaneous attacks 
on multiple fronts. 





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■Revolutionary Features 

Create your own maps and missions with 
the advanced construction kit. 

Create multiplayer alliances on the Internet by 
sharing resources, units and intelligence. 
Other features include gigantic playing maps 
and never-before-seen units. 


Proudly Distributed by 

ROADSHOW 
V INTERACTIVE 


Visit the Village www.village.com.au 





flUMn 

YET TDK CLASSIFY BY 
THE OFFICE OF RIM 
» LITERATURE 
CLASSIFICATION. 


Activision is a registered trademark and Dark Reign: The Future of war is a trademark of 
Activision, Inc. 01997 Activision, Inc. All rights reserved All other trademarks and trade 
names are the properties of their respective owners 








Editor: Ben Mansill ben@next.com.au 
Deputy Editor: Gareth jones gareth@next.com.au 
Art Director: Malcolm Campbell malcolm@next.com.au 
Contributors: David Wildgoose, George Soropos, 

Ashton Mills, Peter Sharpe, Maj. Ian Lindgren, 

Daniel Cohen, Simon “Groo” Gruer, Justin Searchfield 

Cover art: Jacob Hutson 

Technical writers: Jere Lawrence, Garry Wallis 

US Correspondant: Steven Dale Greenlee 

UK Correspondant: Derek dela Fuente 

CD Editor: Harry Maragos 

Photographer: Scott Wajon 

Quake Server guy: Richie 

Cheerupperer: Reagan Wedd 

ADVERTISING 

National Sales Director: Steve Watson steve@next.com.au 
Advertising Manager: Julie-Ann Kwok julie@next.com.au 
Production Co-ordinator: Emma Beck emma@next.com.au 
Phone: (02) 9310 1433 
Fax: (02) 9310 2012 

Victorian Ad Manager: Joanne Lockart joanne@next.com.au 
Phone: (03) 9529 7011 

Circulation Manager: Paul Cox paul@next.com.au 
Publishing Assistant: Melissa Doyle metissa@next.com.au 
Accountant: Theo Fatseas theo@next.com.au 
SUBSCRIPTIONS 

Subscriptions enquiries: Rachel Pirie 

Phone: (02) 9310 1433 
e-mail subs@next.com.au 
Fax: 02 9310 1315 

All copyrights reserved by 

Next Publishing Pty Ltd 

ACN No 002 647 645 

Printed by Wilke Colour 

Film produced by Prestige Colour 

Distributed by NDD 02 9353 9911 

ISSN: PCPP 1326-5644 

Write to PC PowerPlay at: 

Reply Paid 634, 78 Renwick St. 

Redfern, NSW 2012, Australia 
E-mail: pcpowerplay@next.com.au 
Fax: 02 9310 1315 

CD tech support: cdtech@pcpowerplay.next.com.au 
Oracle: oracle@pcpowerplay.next.com.au 
Setup: setup@pcpowerplay.next.com.au 
Letters: letters@pcpowerplay.next.com.au 

What we’re playing: MOO 2 (network), X-Wing vs. TIE, 
Comanche 3, GLQuake, FIFA 97, Civnet, Dark Reign, 
Deathmatch Quake, Suikoden. 


Editorial 


his is the time of year that gamers look forward to least. The couple 
of months leading up to E3 traditionally mean no major game 
releases, as the publishers hold all their good stuff back to (hopeful- 
ly) blow away the competition at the mecca of gaming that is E3. No more. 

^ g ames industry is now huge enough for these companies to have 
I / j / 1 good games on the market now, as well as keeping the special stuff in 

\ ( Sn l f 1 I reserve for the show. Savvy marketing types have also figured out that this 

1 ' 111 quiet time is a great opportunity to get attention for their games that 

wouldn’t ordinarily be forthcoming. Unfortunately for them, most marketing types worked this 
one out simultaneously... So, lots of games and good ones too. 

Like Dark Reign. It’s Australian, it’s absolutely bloody fantastic and it’s going to be huge. Or 
Redneck Rampage. Sure, Funny Doom isn’t going to last on your hard drive as long as the 
proper stuff, but while it’s there you'll love it. Some addictive and deep sci-fi strategy games 
came from nowhere too. Star Command, Imperium Galactica and Into The Void are here to 
save us from the fearful possibility of having only Master of Orion for another year. 

Still, as rich as this month’s games are, next month is E3 in Atlanta and the games and tech- 
nology that will be revealed for the first time will be incredible. I'll be there, so make sure you 
don't miss next month’s PC PowerPlay for the dirt on what you'll be playing/looking forward to 
for the next 12 months. 

Oh, you may have heard something of Carmageddon lately. It’s a racing game in a city envi- 
ronment. That means pedestrians, and being a computer game, you know what to expect when 
you run them down: red pixels. Unfortunately for Carmageddon, it came to the attention of the 
radio talkback blokes in the middle of “Road Rage week” which made it... a Road Rage Game. 
Oh dear... The end result is that we’ll probably get the diluted version. Us and Germany. The 
rest of the world, operating under more realistic censorship guidelines, will be playing the nor- 
mal version. Lucky us eh. Oh well, look on the bright side. Australia and Germany can watch in 
safety as the free world degenerates into anarchy, as gamers, their minds corrupted by this evil 
computer game, take to the streets for real and road rage civilisation itself to destruction. Don’t 
laugh, it could happen, I heard some talkback guy say so... 


Ben 



The PC PowerPlay scoring system 

90%+ A classic. Either an unquestionable example of superiority within its genre, or a 
Aground breaking game that’ll be setting trends. 

80-90% A strong, eminently platable game. Hard to fault and likely to still be on the 
hard drive in 6 months time. 

60-80% Competant and generally enjoyable. Flaws or mediocrity hold these games 
back from higher ratings. 

40-60% Average and ordinary. Not bad, not good. Ideal gift 

0-40% Bad, really bad. Boring, shamelessly unoriginal, cheap and horrible 


P 6 




contents 


CD GUIDE 8 

Another month of hard gaming brought to you by PC PowerPlay. Here’s 
help with making it all happen and getting the most out of the Cover CD. 

NEWS 13 

Australia’s biggest ever multiplayer deathmatch tournament, TEN and 
Multiplay sign a deal to bring you the best games online, does Intel’s Pentium 
II bug affect gamers? Plus all the gaming news from the U.S. and U.K. 

SUBSCRIBE 18 

The best prizes to win and the best way to get PowerPlay. It’s the best. 

INTERVIEW: DEREK SMART _22 

The creator of Battle Cruiser 3000AD speaks exclu- 
sively with PC PowerPlay about the most controversial 
game of all time. 

PREVIEWS 26 

Flying Saucer, Myth, Atlantis, X-Car, Duck man, Age 
of Empires, Relentless 2, Chasm. 



AURAN: INSIDE DARK REIGN J6 

We visit the Australian team that’s got the gaming world's attention. 



REVIEWS 

• Dark Reign 
•Comanche 3 
•Redneck 


•Impenum 
Galactica 
•Star Command 


Conflict 
•Wipeout 2097 
•Callahan’s 
Grosstime Saloon 
•Sentient 
•Into the Void 
•3D Mini Golf 
•C&C for WIN 95 
•You Don’t Know 
Jack: MOVIES 
•Shivers 2 
•NBA JAM 
•Vegas Games 
• Lunatics 


BENCHTEST: MODEMS 


74 


Not all modem's are created equal. Our 
major test and buyer’s guide uncovers 
the best buys as well as the hardware 
to avoid. 





FEATURE: DOOM CLONES 


82 


The past, present and future of the most exciting game genre of them all. 
Quake 2 previewed! 


3D TECHNEWS 


88 


Flying Nightmares 2 is the first game we’ve seen that can rightly be called 
“photo-realistic”. Welcome to the new era in gaming. 


90 


TECH FEATURE: HOME VIDEO CONFERENCING 

Is the future here already? Or is this technology asking too much of 
limited bandwidth? 


HOTWARE 


94 


Dell’s kickass main machine put through its paces, the Hercules Stingray 
128/3D - we liked this 3Dfx Voodoo Rush card so much we bought one, NEC 
monitors - bloody expensive, bloody nice, plus all the latest in sexy hardware. 


DIVERSIONS 


98 


Interactive Henry Rollins, the Romeo and Juliet multimedia CD and a guitar 
tutor CD that actually makes sense. 



102 


TECH.TXT 

Running a ninja PC through a cheap ‘n’ horrible monitor ought 
to be a crime. We look at the current state of monitor technology 
and preview future systems. 


SETUP 


104 


A smart bloke we found who doesn’t mind answering your hard technical 
questions. 

ORACLE 106 

A patient bloke who cares enough to help you with tricky games. 

CODE 109 

Cheat codes for the completely inept. 

WEBSTALK 111_ 

C&C: Red Alert on the net. All the cheats, editors and 
addons you can handle. 

LETTERS 

Articulate readers concerned about important stuff. 

FLASHBACK 114 



David Wildgoose lapses into a massive nostalgia overload. 








GUIDE 


The games people play. Now you can too. 



■— 


Wir»95 


Redneck Rampage 


Cavewars 

Ever had the desire to carefully plot the annihi- 
lation of other sentient species? Then cheer on 
with Avalon Hill’s new strategy game that 
allows you to mercilessly crush up to four 
other players in an unusual underground envi- 
ronment. Offering an excellent strategic chal- 
lenge, cavewars is like a big version of 3D 
chess with more killing and maiming! 

System requirements : Pentium, 16Mb RAM, 
Soundcard.This application is controlled with 
the mouse. 


IUB 


Blam Machinehead \q§E\ 

BLAM! Machinehead from Core Design, is a 3D 
shoot-’em-up, not too dissimilar to Doom etc, 
whereby the player controls a character riding on 
a flying bomb! Equipped with a vast amount of 


PCteof^ 


E2S 

A classic tale of alien livestock abduction! 
Leonard and Bubba are two good-ol' boys from 
the backwoods of Arkansas who have a score to 
settle with some low-down, dirty space aliens. 

It seems these ornery extra-terrestrials made off 
with their prize pig, Bessie. Now they’re fixin’ 
to find out what happens when you separate a 
man from his sow. So ride shotgun with our 
two unlikely heroes as they go on the rampage, 
searching high and low for Bessie and stomp- 
ing on anything that gets in their way! 

Forward = UP ARROW 

Backward = DOWN ARROW 

Left = LEFT ARROW 

Right = RIGHT ARROW 

Strafe = L-ALT or R-ALT 

Fire = L-CTRL or R-CTRL 

Fire Shotgun ( Both Barrels) = Hold Down L- 

CTRLor R-CTRL 

Open = SPACE 

Run = L-SHIFTor R-SHIFT 

Haul-Ass - CAPSLOCK 

Jump = A or / 

Crouch = Z 

Look Up = PGUP or KEYPAD 9 
Look Down = PGDN or KEYPAD 3 
Look Left = INS or KEYPAD o 
Look Right = DEL or KEYPAD . 

Strafe Left = , 

Strafe Right = . 

Aim Up = HOME or KEYPAD 7 
Aim Down = END or KEYPAD 1 

Center View = KEYPAD 5 


Turn Around = BACKSPACE 
Map = TAB 

Map Follow Mode =* F 
Mouse Aiming = U 
Crosshair = I 

Increase/ Decrease Screen = +/- 
Drink Whisky - W 
Drink Moonshine - M 
Eat A Moonpie = O 
Drink Some Beer = B 
Inventory = [ or ] 

1 = Crowbar 

2 = .454 Pistol - great for long range shooting 

3 = Shotgun - Hold the fire key down to shoot 
both barrels at once! 

4 = Dynamite - Perfect for blowing things up 


Win 95 

Running the Powerplay CD under Win 95 is 
best. All the games will appear on the 
menu and run , whether Win 95 or DOS. 

CLICK ON THE POWER WIN ICON 

DOS 

Around half the games are DOS. The 
Powerplay DOS menu will only show DOS 
games 

TYPE PCPOWER AT THE CD PROMPT 
[PRORABLY 0:) 

Win 3 . lx 

Some games will run under Win3. lx. The 
Powerplay menu won't work under 
Win3. lx, so run them straight from the CD 
with File Manager 

RUN STRAIGHT FROM CD 




DOS 


Beavis and Butthead 

It's 3 mini games in one, and you take the 
part of either Beavis or Butthead through 
their journeys, either hocking a loogie on 
passers- by, throwing tennis balls at tennis 
players, or catching junk food from an aban- 
doned building. Simple, and eminently silly, 
but plenty of fun. Tee-pees for your butthole 
not included. 

System requirements 486/DX/33 minimum, 2X 
CD, 8MB RAM, Win 95, Mouse 
This game is controlled with the mouse. 






weaponry, the basic aim of the game is 
to progress to the end of a level, by 
destroying as many objects as possible. 
This game supports a 
Joystick/Gamepad/Mouse 


Bustamove 2 [55H 

Prepare yourself for one of the best 
puzzle games ever to be created. 

We’re talking highly, highly addictive. 
Like all addictive games, the object is 
simple: fire balloons at groups of 
other balloons the same colour and 
make them fall until they’re all elimi- 
nated. The demo actually lets you 
play through a fair amount of the 
the question is, will you be able to stop! 
System requirements : 486, 16Mb 
RAM, Soundcard. 

This application is controlled with the 
mouse. 


Atomic Bomberman 

The smash hit console game 
Bomberman is now ready to ahem, 
explode onto the PC. Exclaimed by 
many as the finest multiplayer game 
yet the PC version will allow up to 10- 
players simultaneously. Bomberman 
features deadly power-ups, in a race 
against the clock to blow your oppo- 
nents to smithereens. Play it with 
your family! 

System requirements : Pentium, 
16Mb RAM, Soundcard, Windows 95 
This game supports a 
Joystick/gamepad/ mouse. 


Star Command jbos] 

Star Command: Revolution is a real- 
time space strategy game where you 
explore space, gather resources, build 
units and then fight your way across 
the galaxy. You can play as one of four 
races. Make sure you do the tutorial! 
System requirements : 486, 16Mb 
RAM, Soundcard. 

This game is controlled with the 
mouse. 

Space = centers main view screen on 

currently selected unit 

Enter = centers main view screen on 

Mothership 

Arrow Keys = scroll main view screen 
F1-F4 = load saved unit selections 
Fg = toggle speed 

L = center on and select the last piece 
you built 

H = halt all selected units 



CTRL+left click = destroy 
friendly station 
SHITHeft click = toggle 
add/subtract from group select 
Alt+ (Player Number) = your 
units will not harm that play- 
er/your healers will help them 

Street Racer l^oll 

Rev up and go ballistic with 
Street Racer, the action-packed 
animated cartoony road race that’s an 
unashamed Mario kart clone but it’s 
fun! Featuring fully 3-D animated 
landscapes. There’s many different 
opponents with different personali- 
ties to contend with. 

System requirements : Pentium, 
16Mb RAM, Soundcard. 

This game supports a 
Joystick/Gamepad. 



Realms of the HauntiV 

Realms of the haunting isn’t just a 
first person shooter with stunning 
graphics. It’s actually an adventure too! 
Picking up the gun allows you to kill 
the evil inside the house, but remem- 
ber to pick everything else up as well. 
You have to use the objects you find to 
reveal new areas of the house. 

Up = Forward 

Down = Backward 

Left = Turn left 

Right = turn right 

< = Strafe left 

> = Strafe right 

Page Up = Look up 

Page Down = Look up and down. 

Home/ End = Set viewing angle tilt. 

CTRL = Fire weapon or punch if no 

weapon is selected. 

Caps Lock = Run Mode on/off. 

A = Jump. 

Z = Crouch. 

H = Displays mouse/keyboard functions. 
/ = Brings up the Inventory Menu. 


Destruction Derby 2 fpos 


With Psygnosis' new commitment to 
the PC, more and more Sony 
Playstation games are being converted 
over. Destruction Derby 2 is the latest 
to reach the PC. With massive spills, 
damage, and deliberate destruction, 
you’ll never need to road rage again. 
System requirements : Pentium, 
16Mb RAM, Soundcard. 

This game supports a 
Joystick/Gamepad/Mouse. 


Blue Ice [dqIi 

In the frozen landscape of Icia where 
there is no place for the joy of living 
and freedom anymore. You begin the 
journey that is to not save, but enlight- 
en Edward LCCXII to the beauty of the 


world and teach him how to feel sensa- 
tions. A compellingly different adven- 
ture that also contains puzzles that will 
challenge the strongest minds within a 
thoroughly artistic environment. 
System requirements : 486, 16Mb 
RAM, Win 95, Soundcard. 

This application is controlled with the 
mouse. 


DeathDrome 

It’s the near future, and hard core 
criminals are turned into sacrifices 
for the viewing population, did some- 
one say “Running man”? Thrown 
into an arena on a tron like bike it’s a 
duel to the death. Lot’s of weapon 
powerups, explosions and multiple 
arenas to race around. Big fun. 
System requirements : Pentium, 
16Mb RAM, Soundcard. Windows 
95, Direct X 

This game supports a Joystick/ 
gamepad. 

Controls: 

Up = forward 
Down = Brake / reverse 
Left = Turn left 
Right = Turn Right 
Look left = E 
Look right = R 
View behind = A 
Fire = Alt 

Toggle weapon = Shift 
Jump = Space 
Barrier = Control 
Taunt = T 


Flight Unlimited for 
Win 95 [winej] 

Flight Unlimited has always been the 
most visually impressive of the Flight 
Simulators. With plenty of global loca- 
tions and things to do, the physics in 
this simulator are so complex, there’s 
even thermal lift between mountains. 
This demo limits you to one plane, 
but enjoy the view. 

System requirements : Pentium, 

16Mb RAM, Soundcard, Windows 
95, Direct X 

This game supports a Joystick/ 
Gamepad. 



JETFIGHTERm 


TAKE 2 INTERACTIVE 
MISSION STUDIOS 


JETFIGHTER III 


ENHANCED CAMPAIGN CD 


Exclusively Distributed By 
Directsoft Australia Pty Ltd 

P.O. Box 658. Wahroonga NSW 2076 
Phone:(02) 9482 3455 Fax:(02) 9482 3650 
Email: dsoft@magna.com.au 
All trademarks are the property of their 
respeclive trademark owners. 






CD GUIDE 

continued^ 


Meat Puppet [ win9 ^ 

In this micro-mission of Meat Puppet, Lotos 
(that’s you) is trapped in the Eugenics Clinics. 
While there, her digital partner, Dumaine, dis- 
covers that the Clinics has lost a valuable piece 
of technology in the sewers that connect to the 
Clinics themselves. Obtain the missing technol- 
ogy to complete the mission. Along the way, col- 
lect flame thrower and nerve gas upgrades. Most 
creatures avoid the well-armed assassin. s 
System requirements : Pentium, 16Mb RAM, 
Soundcard, Windows 95, Direct X 
This game supports a Joystick/Gamepad/Mouse 


Jetfighter 3 iesU 

Following on from the very successful Jetfighter 
1 and 2, Jetfighter 3 has you in control of an F-18 
or an F22 Lightning. Still as easy to play as the 
previous Jetfighter games, you’re going to need 
some beefy hardware to turn all the graphical 
frilly bits on. 

System requirements : Pentium, 16Mb RAM, 
Soundcard. 

This game supports a Joystick/Gamepad. 


NBA Jam Extreme for 
Windows 95 r p ^ r wln9 ^l 

Following on from the success of NBA Jam. 

NBA Jam Extreme utilises fully 3 Dimensional 
objects to represent the players. They look good 
to! Defmtiely faster then the Dos version, the 
Windows 95 version utilises Direct X, but with- 
out and 3D acceleration. 

System requirements : Pentium, 16Mb RAM, 
Win 95, Soundcard. 

This game supports Joystick/Gamepad control only. 


Pandemonium jpQsl ^Win95] 

Pandemonium looks to be a very hot title 


Noir |pbsl ^jn95] 

Sit back, dull the lights, freshen the air with stale 
cigarette smells and allow the full moon to dimly 
light your surroundings. Watch the rolling demo 
of Noir, and soak up all the ambience. 

System requirements : Pentium, 16Mb RAM, 
Win 95, Soundcard. 



indeed. Sort of like Crash 
Bandicoot for the Sony 
playstation, it features fully 3 
dimensional objects, yet you 
run around a series of plat- 
forms like the ol’ days of gam- 
ing. A fantastic mix of modern 
3D and platform nostalgia. 

3Dfx owners, you’re in for a 
big surprise, your card is fully 
supported and it looks FAN- 
TASTIC! (3Dfx screenshots 
only displayed). 

System requirements : 

Pentium, 16Mb RAM, Win 95, 

Soundcard. 

This game supports a 
j oystick/Gamepad 

Once you start the game, you can alter certain 
parameters from the game menu by pressing the 
ESCAPE key. The options are: 

Adjust sound and music volumes , 

Change keyboard controls. 

Change joystick button controls, or 

Alter performance parameters (nonsDfx only). 



SimPark lS2Slfe2£J 

SimPark allows you to create and run your own 
nature parks. With over 130 plant and animal 
species to choose from, you have to manage the 
flora and fauna making sure each fit right with- 
in each ecosystem. Each species has unique fea- 
tures and you will find that attracting human 
visitors can really change the scenery. 

System requirements : Pentium, 16Mb RAM, 
Win 95, Soundcard. 

This application is controlled with the mouse. 

Test Drive Off Roadlssllfesll 

Remember the days of Test Drive when you 
could jump in the supercars of the time and go 
for a race up the winding roads of a mountain. 
Well in Test Drive Off Road, forget the windy 
roads and just scale the mountain! This demo 
only gives you one course and 4 vehicles, but 
with crisp clear graphics and the ability to roll 
over any terrain, it’s like Monster truck madness 
in a suit and tie! 

System requirements : Pentium, 16Mb RAM, 
Win 95, Soundcard. 

This game supports a Joystick/Gamepad. 

Control 
Up = Forward 
Down = Break/ Reverse 
Left = Turn Left 
Right = Turn Right 


Tigershark 

In Tiger Shark, you control a futuristic 
Hydrofoil/Sub that can glide across the ocean 
surface, or dive deep below. There’s plenty of ene- 
mies to kill and you can even sneak up on boats 
and battleships from underneath and blast em. 
System requirements : Pentium, 16Mb RAM, 
Win 95, Soundcard. 

This game supports a Joystick /Gamepad 
/Mouse. 

Additional support for : 3DFX, MMX. 


All available controls sets and their configura- 
tion options are shown on the Controls Tab of 
the Configration Menu. 

By clicking on the control mapping buttons, you 
can remap any of the controls to any button 
(keyboard, mouse, joystick). Where applicable 
you can choose any valid joystick or mouse axis. 


Virtual Pool 95 ts 2 Sily in ^i 

If you’re really bad at pool don’t shy away from 
this fine product. Perfectly representing the 
game of pool in every way it offers an amazing 
simulation experience. It’s so accurate you’ll 
even get better at the real thing. Hey, if you’re 
already good at it, get on the Net and take on 
some people with the Multiplayer support. 

System requirements : Pentium, 16Mb RAM, 
Win 95, Soundcard. 

This application is controlled with the mouse. 
Additional Keyboard commands. 

5 = Stroke cue (Take Shot) 
f = Move cue tip 
R = Replay 
T = Cheat 
U = Undo 
O = Above view 
A = Aim 

X = Quick Above view 
C = Centre view 
V = Move view 
B = Raise Butt 

X-Com 3 - Apocalypse IpqH 

If you liked Xcom 1, and Xcom 2 (Heck, even if 
you didn’t like them), then Xcom 3 is a god send. 
Featuring Improved turn-based combat with new 
abilities for all the characters. They can now run, 
crawl and kneel in fluid animated motions. 
Properly equipped, agents can now also jump 
across small gaps and climb up walls and ladders. 
New options also include gravity in the combat 
engine. X-COM agents can shoot at pipes on the 
ceiling, for example, and watch them come 
crashing to the ground on top of an unsuspect- 
ing alien. Grenades and other high explosive 
devices will now have much more strategic 
value to your arsenal. Of course, you need to be 
careful about the damage you cause to a build- 
ing, because the owning corporation wall cut off 
your funds if you destroy their factory! 

But the one missing feature has finally been 
addressed, to keep EVERYONE happy, there is 













CROSSTIME SAiOO/v 


The Gods have decided it s 
closing time for our universe, 
so the regulars at Callahan’s 
can either drink up and go 
home or do something about it. 


Time-travellers, aliens, 
vampires, ordinary folks, even 
a talking dog - they gather 
every night at Callahan’s for 
the outrageous fun, 
camaraderie, and the belief that 
“pain shared is pain lessened, 
while joy shared is multiplied". 


You couldn’t choose a funnier 
group of beings to help you 
save the universe. 


| mm. 

• A Side-Splitting Comedy Adventure 


Six Adventures! 


From a castle in Transylvania to the 
e0ge6 of the universe! 


• Beautiful, incredibly detailed, 360 
degree panoramic art that brings the 
^ world to life. 


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respective trademark owners. 


DOS TROUBLESHOOTING 

The most likely cause of any problem is a shortage of 
conventional memory. This has nothing to do with how 
much RAM is on your system, but how it’s set up. To find 
out how much is available for the games, type MEM 
/CIMORE. Look for a line that reads LARGEST EXE- 
CUTABLE PROGRAM SIZE, if it’s over 550k then everything 
should run. If it’s under that figure, you’ll need to edit 
your system files to sort it out. 

The easiest way is to use the MAKE BOOT DISK facility 
found on most game installation menus. If you’d pre- 
fer not to do that, then you’ll need to manually edit 
your two configuration files - the CONFIG.SYS and 
AUTOEXEC.BAT. 

To do so, type EDIT CONFIG.SYS and EDIT 
AUTOEXEC.BAT. In the CONFIG.SYS file, the most likely 
culprit is EMM386.EXE. You don’t need it for the majori- 
ty of games, so put REM at the start of the line. This will 
disable it. In the AUTOEXEC.BAT look to see if you are 
running SMARTDRV, if it’s there, put REM at the start. 
These two simple measures should overcome most 
problems. If you’re still running short on conventional 
memory (the game should give you an error message 
telling you how much more you need), then a boot disk 
is the best solution. 

THE PC POWERPLAY CD - The games on the CD are 
designed to be run in different ways. Some can be run 
straight from the disc, while others need to be installed. 
Games requiring installation will usually prompt you 
with a choice of where it will install to, so take note! 
Many of the games which run from the CD will only pro- 
duce sound effects if you have a Sound Blaster compati- 
ble sound card set to default settings. That’s 99% of you, 
so if you get no sound you’re best copying the game to 
your hard drive, then running the setup program - usually 
INSTALL, SETUP, CONFIG or SOUNDSET. As with all prob- 
lems PC, trial and error is the only true solution. Feel free 
to copy an entire game to your hard drive. All games are 
in the GAMES directory. Also copy a game from the CD if 
it mysteriously refuses to install. Then run the INSTALL 
file from the hard drive. 

DISCLAIMER - All possible care is taken while select- 
ing, testing and installing the software which is includ- 
ed on the PC PowerPlay CD. Next Publishing accepts 
no responsibility for data loss or other damage which 
may occur during its use. If your CD is clearly faulty, 
send it in for free replacement to: 

PC PowerPlay - CD Returns, 

PO BOX 634 , Strawberry Hills 
NSW 2012 

SUPPORT - cdtech@pcpowerplay.next.com.aus 


now an optional real-time combat 
mode: Before each tactical combat 
mission, you have the choice of fight- 
ing the aliens in the turn-based mode 
or the new real-time mode. The real- 
time mode gives you total control 
over the pace of the action, you can 
pause the action at any time and reas- 
sign your agents, give them new com- 
mands, load different weapons and 
assess the strategic situation. What 
are you waiting for, start playing 
now!! 

System requirements: Pentium, 

16Mb RAM, Soundcard. 

This application is controlled with the 
mouse. 

KEYBOARD CONTROLS 
General 

Switch Map View = TAB 
Up Level Arrow = PAGE UP 
Down Level Arrow = PAGE DOWN 
Toggle Map Level Display = Print 
Screen 

Set Safe Mode = F9 

Set Cautious Mode = Fio 

Set Aggressive Mode = Fn 

Crawling =« F2 

Walking = F3 

Running = F4 

Don 9 t Fire = F5 

Aimed-Shot = F6 

Snap-Shot = F7 

Auto-Shot = F8 

Kneel = BACKSPACE 

Message History = M 

Center-On Message = HOME 

Select Squad = 1,2,3, 4, 5, 6 

Assign selected units to squad = 

CTRL + 1,2,34,5,6 

Abort mission = ESCAPE 

‘Hand' Area 

Equip Unit Screen = ENTER 
Throw (Left Hand) = [ 

Throw (Right Hand) = ] 

Drop (Left Hand) = @ 

Drop (Right Hand) = # 

Real-Time Only 
Pause on /off = SPACE 
Turn -Based Only 
End Turn = E 

You Don’t K now J ack 
Movies JdOsJ |yvin95] 

The You Don’t Know Jack series of 
trivia games are the best ever made, 
by a long stretch. Now, You Don’t 
Know Jack Movies offers the same 
presenter, better jokes, more random 
phone calls and questions only about 
Movies. The You Don't Know Jack 
series are the ultimate party games. 
Try it and see what we mean! 

System requirements : Pentium, 

16Mb RAM, Win 95, Soundcard. 

This application is controlled with 
the mouse. 


UTILITIES 

Digital Underground (DUG) - 

Multiplayer games can be 
great fun, but the Internet can 
also be very slow which rather 
ruins the experience. The solu- 
tion however is to use a dedi- 
cated dial-up server, like DUG. 

Setup the browser, click on the 
connect icon, and you’re away. 

Play Quake, Interstate 76, 

Monster Truck Madness, Red 
Alert, C&C, and plenty more. 

DUGIPX - A demo of Kahn to 
play IPX network games (eg. 

Warcraft II, Red Alert & 

Duke3d) on Digital 
Underground. 

Engage - Another company 
offering multiplayer services 
across the Net. 

LVJew Pro - LView Pro is an 
image file editor for Microsoft 
Windows 95, Windows NT 3.51 
or newer and Windows 3.1* 
with Win32s 1.30 or newer. It 
loads/saves image files in: 

JPEG JFIF, GIF 873/893, 

TIFF, Truevision Targa, 

Windows and OS/2 BMP, 

ZSoft's PCX, and PBMPLUS’ 

PBM, PGM and PPM formats. 

McAffee Virus Scanner - 
Downloading cool utilities and 
demos is a necessary thing to 
do, but there’s always the dan- 
ger of having a nasty little 
virus tag along for the ride. A 
virus scanner like McAffee will 
cleanse your system on a regu- 
lar basis. If you haven’t got a 
virus scanner yet, Give this a 
go, it’s one of the best. Works 
in Dos/Win 3.11 and Win 95. 

Palace - The Palace is a collec- 
tion of on-line communities 
where you can share common 
interests with others. In 
PalaceSpace, you participate as 
an avatar - a graphical repre- 
sentation of yourself. Chat, 
attend live events, join multi- 
player games, shop for merchandise, 
and more - all within a rich multimedia 
environment! 

Pkzip - The compression utility that 
has been around since the dawn of 
time, so to speak. This is the latest 
version for both Windows 3.1 and 95. 
Paint Shop Pro - Paint Shop Pro V 4.1 I 
is the complete windows graphics pro- 
gram for image creation, viewing, and 
manipulation. Features include paint- 
ing with 8 brushes, photo retouching, 
image enhancement and editing, 
colour enhancement, image browser, 
batch conversion, and scanner support. 
Included are 20 standard filters and 12 
deformations. Supports plug-in filters. 
Over 34 file formats. Win95 or NT 4 


Winner SIA & ZiffNet awards. From 
JASC. Inc. Quicktime for Windows 

Video for Windows - The runtime 
version of Video for Windows to 
allow AVI usage on your PC. 

Patches 

3rd Reich , Age of Rifles, Apache, Broken 
Alliance , Civilisation 2, Destruction 
Derby 2, Descent 2, Dlscworld 2, Duke 
Nukem 3D, Flying Corps, Jet Fighter 3, 
Microsoft Flight Simulator for Win 95, 
Mech Warrior 2 Mercenaries, Privateer 2, 
Skynet, Strife, Terminator Future Shock, 
Tigers on the prowl 2, Tomb Raider for 
Rendition 3Dfx and Matrox Mystique, 
Warcraft 2 Tides of Darkness 








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THE NEWS 



L ate this month, on Sunday 
the 27th of July, the Brisbane 
Convention and Exhibition 
centre is going to become a mecca 
for Australian gamers. 
Armageddon #3 will be rolling into 
town. It's something worth getting 
excited about, as A3 will be the 
largest gaming event Australia has 
ever seen, and one of the largest 
anywhere in the world to boot - 
with sneak previews of games 
from some of Australia’s best soft- 
ware developers, Quake tourneys, 
and the opportunity to meet and 


around 200 PCs networked togeth- 
er for the games fest, with 15 top of 
the line public servers equipped 
with all the best multiplayer 
games, and 15 dedicated Quake 
servers as well. They’re expecting 
around 1000 gamers to turn up, 
and around 20 of Australia’s top 
Quake clans. There will be plenty 
to keep them happy, with two 


Quake tourneys to be run on the 
day, one for single players and one 
for clans, all fighting for the title of 
Australia’s best Quaker (and 
Quake Clan). 

For more information and tickets 
you can call in at any Queensland 
‘Software Today’ store, or check 
out the A3 web page at 

www.armageddon.thehub.com.au 


sidelines 

Seen any UFO’s lately? If you have, and you 
managed to get a picture of it, don’t rush off 
and sell it to the National Enquirer just yet. 
MicroProse have started a competition to pro- 
mote the launch of ‘X-Com: Apocalypse’. They 
want pictures or some sort of ‘proof’ of your 
encounter along with a detailed description, and 
the best one will win a trip to E3 in Atlanta. It’s 
all just a big conspiracy though, to mask the 
truth that MicroProse execs don’t want you to 
know - each copy of X-Com has a small device 
implanted that will send information back about 
your personal habits. Trust no-one. 


It’s been almost ten years since the original Sim 
City, but Maxis are still pumping sequels out 
Sim City 3000 is slated for release by mid to 
late 1997, and will feature detailed 3D graphics, 
allowing SimMayors to view their cities from 
street level up to 50,000 feet in the air. There’s 
a host of other new features as well, such as 
the player receiving face to face feedback from 
their citizens. Maxis are going to preview their 
new sim at E3, so you can expect more details 
to follow shortly. 


Plans are already underway for add on disks for 
X-Wing vs. Tie Fighter to be ready by the end 
of the year. The disk will address some of the 
issues that players have commented upon in 
newsgroups, and it looks as though the single 
player missions are going to get some attention. 
Support for some 3D accelerator cards looks to 
be on the horizon too, with patches expected 
within a couple of months, but there’s no word 
on exactly which cards will get support as yet. 


Shameless sister-mag plug: If you’re into rock 
n’ roll, check out the August edition of Rolling 
Stone which offers a free bonus book. 
Sponsored by MTV, the Rock ’n Roll Adventures 
Book features heaps of great stuff on Alanis 
Morissette, Kurt Cobain & Courtney, Pearl Jam, 
Bjork, U2, Smashing Pumpkins, Tori Amos and 
tonnes more. 


TEN coming to Australia 
with Multiplay 

Multiplay, one of Australia’s largest 
dedicated multiplayer gaming net- 
works, have just entered into an 
exclusive affiliation agreement with 
the San-Francisco based Total 
Entertainment Network (TEN). Good 
news. TEN is one of the largest gam- 
ing services in the states, and has 
exclusive deals for plenty of top of 
the line games - games that will now 
be available through Multiplay for 
Australian multiplayer gamers. 

Multiplay also host the official 
Battle.net server for Australia, as well 
as the official QuakeWorld master 


server - which allows for up to 32 
player Quake games, much improved 
TCP/IP multiplayer games, and a 
world wide ranking system for play- 
ers. For a company that started early 
last year primarily as a way to multi- 
play Quake on a fast network 
Multiplay have come a long way in a 
short time. They’ve expanded to 
three major centres, and now offer a 
range of games as well as a KALI 
server for just about every IPX com- 
patible game you can think of. There 
are no plans at present to change 
their pricing structure either, so the 
$ 29.93 per month fee for unlimited 
gaming time looks like it’s going to 
stay, at least for a while. 



Multiplay currently have dial-up 
services available from Sydney, 
Canberra and Wollongong, though 
they plan to expand POP’s to 
Melbourne and Brisbane in the third 
quarter. Multiplay can be contacted 
at www.multiplay.com.au or on 1800 
359 200 . 


www.thezone.com.au 

Hundreds of Titles Available - Including the hottest 
reviewed in PC Power Play! 


►Updated daily - New Titles Added Weekly 
•Order Securely Online with Your Credit Card 
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1 800 813 220. We accept major Credit Crads, Cheque or Money 
order if you mail your order. All Sales are final. Some promotions 
and pricing advertised online are only available if you order online! 





THE NEWS 


sidelines 

It might look like a bit of a dodgy idea, but 
Scott Miller, president of Apogee/30 Realms, 
thinks there might be some money in it He's 
signed an agreement with Pocket Books to pub- 
lish four books based on two of their titles; 

Duke Nukem and Shadow Warrior. The plan is 
for two books from each game but they won’t 
just be rehashes of the events from the games 
themselves, instead you can expect continua- 
tions of the events and characters as with the 
oh-so-readable Doom books that proved to be 
so popular. Expect the Shadow Warrior books 
first followed by the Duke titles around the 
same time as Duke Nukem Forever is released. 


We told you about the war of words between 
Hipnotic Interactive and 3D Realms last issue - 
well, it’s still going, and it’s starting to get very 
nasty too. Michael Hadwin from Hipnotic has 
released a nasty little ‘story’ of the situation, 
insinuating that 3D Realms were just copycats, 
didn't have an original idea, couldn't build their 
own game engine so they were forced to license 
the Quake II technology, and the staff that left 
3D Realms for Hipnotic might even have been 
spies for Hipnotic in the first place. Scott Miller 
from 3D Realms was quick to respond, and took 
the high moral ground, castigating Hadwin for 
his ‘immaturity’, and noting that Hipnotic's Quake 
Mission Pack had a room with three headstones 
inscribed with the initials of the top three 3D 
Realms employees. Play nice now, boys. 


More on the Quake killer/clone genre - Epic 
MegaGames' much anticipated forthcoming 
title, Unreal will only support either OpenGL or 
Direct3D, rather than both according to Tim 
Sweeney, Unreal’s lead programmer. He's also 
singing the virtues of the 3Dfx card, for those in 
the market for a 3D accelerator, and stated that 
Unreal will run very well with the 3Dfx, as well 
as a host of other games. Unreal will also sup- 
port a number of CPU’s, including Pentiums, P 
Pro’s, MMX Pentiums, the AMD K6, Cyrix CPU’s 
as well as Pentium II processors. 


Still with Quake related games, Activision and 
Hipnotic Interactive have announced the title of 
their upcoming game, the sixth to make use of 
the Quake engine. It's going to be called ‘Sin!’, 
and Hipnotic have some sketches available for 
viewing on their website at www.hipnotic.com 


ATI have made a bit of a name for themselves 
in the past with regard to their consumer poli- 
cy. They entered into the 3D accelerator board 
market with their ATI Rage card, and then a 
couple of months later released a new and 
improved model, completely superceeding the 
previous one, which needless to say didn't 
make those who purchased the original very 
happy at all. 

Now ATI have just released their latest 3D/2D 
card onto the market, the XPERT@Play. The 
board does look like a good combination of 3D 
and 2D graphical capabilities, as well as DVD 
video acceleration and the ability to use a TV for 
display. Whether consumers are going to forgive 
and forget is another matter entirely though... 


Pentium 
Pro & 
Pentium II 
Bug - not 
so bad! 


On may the 5th a message was 
posted at www.x86.org/secrets/ 
Dan04n.html regarding a bug 
found in the Pentium Pro and the 
Pentium II processors. This bug 
was discovered to be in the float- 
ing-point unit of the CPU. 

Intel has confirmed the pres- 
ence of a bug which occurs when 
executing a FIST instruction, this 
instruction is used for converting 
floating-point (decimal place 
numbers) data to Integer (whole 
numbers) data. It happens when 
a very large negative number is 
converted to an Integer and goes 
past the biggest negative value 
the register can handle, this 
value has to be greater than - 
98,304 to cause the error. The 
bug only occurs with the 16 and 
32bit versions of the FIST 
instruction, the 64Bit version is 
unaffected. When an overflow 
occurs. The P6 sets the PE 
(Precision Exception) flag in the 
FPU (Floating Point Unit) status 
register instead of setting the IE 
(Invalid operation Exception) flag 
as previous processors like the 
486 and the Pentium chips did. 
Programs that have been specifi- 
cally designed to check the IE 
flag for overflows will not know 
of the error and may end up 
report meaningless data. 

Intel is working extremely hard 
to ensure that all applications are 
checked for possible malfunction 
and is working with software ven- 
dors to check if any applications 
are affected, most programs have 
their own overflow checking, as 
most compilers don’t have a stan- 
dard way of supporting FPU excep- 
tions. Operating systems such as 
Windows 95 and NT will just 
ignore floating-point exceptions 
when encountered. Intel has 
placed a work around on their web 
site, check out www.intel.com for 
information. Most games should 
be unaffected by this bug. 



Top Ten Games 


Rank TITLE 

Developer / Distributor 


This Last Month 

1 - NEED FOR SPEED 2 

Electronic Arts / Electronic Arts 

2 - X-WING VS. TIE FIGHTER 

LucasArts / Metro Games 

3 6 TOMB RAIDER 

Core Design / Eidos 

4 - INTERSTATE 76 

Activision / Roadshow 

5 - OUTLAWS 

LucasArts / Metro Games 

6 - RED ALERT: Counterstrike 

Westwood / Sega Ozisoft 

7 2 DIABLO 

Blizzard / Dataflow 

8 8 C&C (ANNIVERSARY RACK) 

MicroProse / Sega Ozisoft 

9 - GRAND PRIX 2 

Microprose / Seag Ozisoft 

1 O - FLIGHT SIMULATOR (Fly AusL) 

Microsoft / Various 

Week ending i8th May 1997. 


The Acer best selling charts are carefully compiled from a sample panel of retailers select- 
ed across Australia including mass merchants, department stores, specialty software 
stores and independent outlets. Retailers surveyed include Myer Grace Bros., David Jones 
and John Martins, K Mart, Target. Big W, World 4 Kids, Harvey Norman Computer Super 
Stores, Blockbuster, Brashes, Video Games Heaven, and Games Wizards. 


; 


Charts supplied by Australian Computer Entertainment Review 


Centaur Technology Inc. a spin off company of IDT (Integrated Device 
Technologies Inc.) is soon to try and take a piece of the x86 pie from Intel. 
Centaur’s new x86 compatible processors (www.centtech.com) are nearly ready 
for release, which should be sometime in the early second half of 1997, the 
new processors, known as the IDT-C6, will come in speeds of 150, 180, and 200 
MHz. The processor has around 5.4 million transistors and still manages to 
have a tiny 88 millimetres squared footprint, 50 percent smaller than most 
Pentium clones die sizes. The C6 is also equipped with the MMX instruction set 
and is also socket 7 compatible, so will work with current motherboards. These 
processors will be aimed at the low-cost desktop and mobile market, so expect 
very good pricing on all three variations of the chip. G.W. 


** 


NEWS FLASH 


** 


IDT-C6 Processor announced. 



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£2= THE U.S. NEWS 


Steven Dale Greenlee 


Did Too! Did Not! 

Mid-May saw a little tiff aired 
publicly between Enemy Nations 
game developer Windward 
Studios and publisher Head 
Games. In mid-May Windward 
Studios head Dave Thielen pub- 
lished a statement on their Web 
site that Head Games had failed 
to fork over some money owed 
them and thus was shutting down 
the Web site and endangering the 
competition of Enemy Nations. 
Well, a week later cooler heads 
prevailed and things been 
smoothed over by Head Games 
big cheese Dan Hammett. 
Hammett says Windward was 
promised that their marketing 
expenses would be reimbursed by 
Head Games, but Windward had 
not turn in any receipts, so no 
reimbursement has been made, 
but will be once the paperwork 
has been turned in. “They chose 
to delay sending me over the 
information,” Hammett says, 
“.working themselves into a fren- 
zy, spreading rhetoric around the 
Internet, and then turning off 
their web site.” Hammett also 
says that Windward is “the most 
difficult developer I’ve ever 
worked with.” but that Head 
Games will support Enemy 
Nations and will work to make it a 
hit. Before that can happen 
Hammett says there are some 
serious bugs that Windward has 
to fix and press another gold mas- 
ter. Hammett says Head Games 
will pay royalties and fulfill their 
commitment. He says, “They just 
have to do their end.” 

In the meantime, Thielen has 
backed off his published state- 
ments (quote. “Due to Head 
Games continuing to delay pay- 
ments due to Windward Studios, 
until further notice Windward 
Studios will provide no support of 
any kind. We apologize for this 
but we cannot continue to provide 
support, that in many cases is 
actually the responsibility of the 
publisher, if we are not going to 
be paid.”) and removed the dia- 
tribe from the Web page. This 
skirmish seems to be settled, but 
only time will tell what will tran- 
spire in the coming weeks. 


Stuc*q^ 



Quaked Romero 



Yes, Kornelia Takacs of Hungary 
and new to the U.S. beat out five 
other guys to meet Quake design- 
er john Romero in a deathmatch 
held during the Computer Game 

Developer’s Conference and fragged him good. Takacs ultimately beat 
Romero by 11 frags and took home the grand prize of a super-loaded MMX 
Pentium computer. Who says computer games are dominated by males? 


U2 Lara Croft? 



Despite handing television network ABC some 
of the lowest ratings it had ever received during a 
recent U2 special, spin doctors are still hyping the 
Irish band’s latest tour as the most expensive ever. 

And for gamers who are also into music (is there 
time for both?) they will be treated to a spe- 
cial video venture of Tomb Raider’s heroine 
Lara Croft. Yes, game designers Core with the 
permission of publisher Eidos, put together a 

special video that will be shown on U2*s 7,000 square foot video screen 
during the PopMart tour. PopMart kicked off in Las Vegas April 25th and 
will cost a reported $120 million USD. Money moves in mysterious ways. 

Some Hardware bites the dust. 

Did you know anyone who owned a 3DO 

wBm machine ? nrither But that console machine 

HB ^^^B that was to have rivalled Nintendo and the PC 

B^^B is all but dead 3D0’s Trip Hawkins says he had 

W sold the last remnants of his hardware busi- 
wm* B ness to Samsung for $20 million USD. Trip 

W \ Hawkins, one of gamedom’s pioneers (he 

helped form Electronic Arts) will now have complete operating control of 
3DO since 3DO president Hugh Martin will be moving on. 

And here is a hardware death that will surely throws us all into a state of 
desperate woe. Bandai says that Pippin is dead. The Pippin was a televi- 
sion top multimedia console that you could play games with and access 
the Internet. Bandai says sales of the Pippin was ’’disappointing’* and will 
no longer make them. Instead, Bandai says they will form a new unit from 
the Pippin ashes who will focus on designing PC and Mac based games. 
That includes a CD-ROM version of Tamagotchi, the virtual pet that is dri- 
ving Japan virtually crazy. Coming this October Bandai will merge with 
Sega in an already done deal. 


Bullfrog’s Molyneux finds his legs 

I should have seen it coming. Some while ago Peter 
Molyneux, the game designer extradionaire of Syndicate and 
Magic Carpet, told me he was wanting to get a game of 
Internet Diplomacy going and invited me to join in. Well, we 
never did, but it could have been the first sign he was getting 
bored with Bullfrog. Now comes word that Dungeon Keeper is 
finished and that Molyneux has left Bullfrog and is in the 
process of forming a new company. It’s also rumoured that Molyneux has 
joined up with his old parent company, Electronic Arts, who will publish his 
new game. Usually Molyneux attends E3 and maybe we can find out more 
then. Dungeon Keeper is slated for a mid-July release. 



Poor Acclaim 

Acclaim is still smarting from 
financial woes and has announced 
another round of layoffs. Some 115 
employees will be hacked as part of 
the $40 million USD cost cutting 
measures. These employees will 
joined the 70 who have already 
been laid off. Acclaim lost $17 mil- 
lion USD last quarter which is 
much less than the same quarter 
loss of S55 million USD a year ago. 
And even with the mega-success of 
Turok: Dinosaur Hunter for the 
N64, it is not enough to pull 
Acclaim back into the black. 

Sperry moves up. 

Westwood, while not a big 
money maker, is a stable game 
publisher and now Westwood pres- 
ident Brett Sperry has been 
appointed to lead development at 
parent company Virgin Interactive 
Entertainment. VIE parent compa- 
nies, Spelling Entertainment and 
Viacom, have listed VIE as a dis- 
continued operation and have put 
up the unit for a fire sale price. Of 
course, under the heavy and nearly 
incompetent hand of Viacom, 
Virgin’s future was foretellable. 
More than likely VIE will make a 
public offering in the S300 million 
USD range sometime late this 
year. Sperry indicates he will make 
some hard decisions about the 40 
titles now in development at VIE 
thinking that’s just too many. 

I Magic aces ICE 

Interactive Magic, Wild Bill 
Stealey’s flight sim company, says 
they have acquired Interactive 
Creations (ICE). No one is saying 
what the financial details were, but 
ICE becomes a wholly owned sub- 
sidiary of I Magic and will be called 
I Magic Online. I Magic Online will 
concentrate on designing real-time 
games for the Internet and Web. ICE 
was known for Warbirds, the real- 
time flight battle game. Warbirds 
began as joint venture with Eidos’ 
Domark, but the partnership fell 
through rather acrimoniously. 

I Magic’s first release under their new 
label is an online version of Planetary 
Raiders, a space battle sim. 

Meanwhile, there is rumours that 
LucasArts is eyeing I Magic as an 
acquisition target itself, but 
LucasArts denies any such claim. 

I Magic’s Dave Murray says they 
aren’t looking to sell, but they would 
be open to a special partnership. 




THE U.K. NEWS 


Derek dela Fuente 


Well, you can tell that summer 
is approaching when the cricket 
season starts and we get ready 
to give the Australian team a 
real drubbling. There is a little 
slow down now with game 
releases, what with the E3 and 
hot days ahead but always 
plenty of gossip! 

Number 1J 

The PC seems to be forging 
ahead with no sight of the N64 
making any inroads in the UK or 
Europe, even though the price has 
been dropped a cool 100 pounds to 
/149, but the Playstation seems to 
be impressing everyone with your 
average owner of a PC in the UK 
also owning a Playstation as well! 

Sex, Drugs, Deaths 

Nah, but got your attention. The 
analogy applies to this story. DMA 
(the Lemmings developers), have 
been given a massive boost with 
censor groups taking note of the 
name and theme of their new 
game, called Grand Auto Theft 
from BMG. Apparently this game 
is going to give the buyers an 
incentive to steal a car and joyride 
it, so say the people who have such 
high morals but have not even 
seen the game! Strange really, 
because I cannot remember people 
walking around the streets with 
swords and flame throwers when 
Mortal Kombat was released. With 
most of the UK tabloids giving a 
full page to this story, it will cer- 
tainly add 20,000 to the sales. 

Top celebrity does a whoopsie! 

One of the biggest games of 
96/97 was Tomb Raider, and 
shortly you will be reading all 
about this sequel when I visit the 
team to get the lowdown on what 
is on offer. It may interest you to 
know that it is the favourite game 
of all time from the world 
renowned writer Terry Pratchett 
(Discworld series) and he said to 
me that “I have just finished the 
Duke Nukem Plutonium Pack, and 
the Darkening. I was really 
impressed with Tomb Raider - 



Let’s get ready to rumble! 


Mindscape, who are owned by one of the richest groups in the world, 
are going to make 1997 a year where people will look at all of their 
games with added appeal. Well that’s what was being conveyed at their 
recent distributors event, where I was the only journo invited (yes fame 
for your pommie man). One title is Dark Omen - PC CD ROM - This is the 
follow up to Shadow of the Horned Rat/Warhammer and is the second 
title from the Games Workshop licence. This game is coded in-house at 
Burgess Hill by Mindscape’s own development team. This was one of the 
company’s major successes with its great visual presentation and solid 
gameplay. Over 20 people are working on this sequel. Billed as a real 
time arcade strategy game. Feedback from fans of the Warhammer game 
has been intensive and so if you thought that there were any areas in the 
game that were weak then Dark Omen will please all you fans of this 

series. The R/D 

on this game . ‘ . -"r* " J 

will appeal to an V - : B 

J ^ 

even wider audi- r A 

i - HRs W 

ence than the -fl 

* ,^ 71/ j r 

The HUufi 

long 

game and then ^ ^ ^ ^ 

you are thrown ^ 

into the massive 

world, to fight, wander and interact. 

The improved features within the game include refined full screen true 3D 
graphics with a palette of up to 32,000 colours giving the game a dynamic 
and visually impressive look. The vigorous and non linear plots will enthral 
the players proving endless hours of gameplay. 

The developers have enhanced their ‘battle’ engine and superior artificial 
intelligence and tactics will challenge even the most experienced player. 

Two player mode is also on offer - via network and modem support. Mission 
discs are also being planned as the game is developed to follow on. 

This is a massive game, set within a huge world with creatures/mon- 
sters galore. It is a fine balance of strategy and action and can be played 
in a number of ways. If you are an out and out action player then you can 
focus on this aspect but still some thought must be put into the resource 
side of the game. The icing on this game is the use of sound and music 
which really pulls the player into the dark and sinister world you will be 
immersed in.. Point and click interface with stats screens galore ensures 
that you have always something to do, look at or interact with! 


Gobsmacked in fact. It felt so real. 
It was nearly brown trousers time 
in The Lost Valley, I can tell you. I 
play computer games a lot and I 
mean a lot. Sitting in front of a 
screen writing (books) you need 
some relaxation and what better 
way than to load in something like 
Wing Commander, which is one of 
my favs. One of the nice things 
about making lots of money from 
books is that I can go to the local 
Virgin Store (plug) and buy what 
I want!”. 

Going going gonel 

The 3 Do company who are no 
longer involved with the hardware 
and have a 150 strong development 
team and are now only a publisher 
and developer are closing their 
European base and heading back to 
the USA. Pity really for they have 
some great PC games lined up 
which include Army Men And 
Uprising, two strategy games that 
look excellent. 

Ed's request. 

I am always being asked what 
the developers are up to in the UK 
and what’s new regarding what 
they are doing. At present every- 
one is gearing up to ensuring their 
games work in conjunction with 
the new 3D cards. The Matrox 
Mystique and 3Dfx-based cards 
like the Orchid Righteous 3D and 
Diamond Monster 3D are the ones 
they are using. When it comes to 
the Diamond Stealth cards, you 
can forget it, well that is the view 
of one of the main producers at 
Psygnosis. To highlight this point 
Psygnosis, who have in the last 
year made a name more for them- 
selves on the Playstation than PC, 
are really focusing on the PC to 
ensure they are the number 1 boys 
on both formats and we shall see 
at least 25 PC titles over the next 
12 months. The producers at the 
company are saying what with the 
new range of 3D cards plus MMX 
technology they can now produce 
games generations better than the 
Playstation. If you take a look at 
their new racing game called Fi 
3DFX then you will be gob 
smacked at the speed and realism 
they have conveyed. But wait, in 
September they have a new ver- 
sion called Fi 97 and that it a 
50% improvement which sounds 
quite remarkable considering the 
original game is about as good as 
you can get! 





You know why you should subscribe to PC PowerPlay. If you’re having trouble 
remembering, here’s a quick rundown: It’s cheaper, faster, more convenient 
and you’ll raise your social status. Obvious really... 

Another sensible reason is that subscribers and subscription renewers have a 
chance to win the best prizes on offer in each issue of PC PowerPlay. The 
odds are a lot better than our usual competitions too... 

This month we've got: 


2 VIDEO BLASTER PCI MULTIMEDIA TOOLKITS 


to give away from Creative Labs. 

This is a powerful and versatile piece of equipment. It comes with a special 
CCD CAMERA and here are just a few things you can use it for: 


VIDEO CONFERENCING 


Call a friend over the internet and force them to stare at your ugly mug while 
they listen to you rant about how cool this new technology is. 


VIDEO CAPTURE & EDITING 


Create your own video clips! Using just about any input source, the VIDEO 
BLASTER PCI allows you to manipulate and edit video clips for slick multime- 
dia presentations, or just for the fun of it. 

Bring this enjoyable and relaxing pastime to your PC! 

Watch Letterman while you slaughter the online hordes in Diablo - fantastic! 

These babies are worth a cool and we’ve got 2 of them to hand out. 2 
new or renewing subscribers for the month of July WILL WIN! 


Last month's winners (4 Rendition Verite Screamin' 30 accelerators J: 


B McLean, Huntingdale WA. 
R Pearce, Cooranbong NSW. 
P Cass, Pymble NSW. 

M Webster, Kurrajong NSW. 



• Cut or copy the 
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All entries close July 23 1997 
Entries to: PC PowerPlay 
(Name of Comp) 

Reply Paid 639 
Strawberry Hills NSW 2012 




Redneck Rampage 


Comanche 3 

The original Comanche was 
famous for its ground-breaking 3D 
graphics, simple yet rewarding flight 
model and high-action atmosphere. 
Comanche 2 was a bit of a dodgy one, 
with the “sequel” really just a sce- 
nario disc, but Comanche 3 is what 
you’ve been waiting for. The new 
Voxel Space 2 engine looks the part 
and allows exciting terrain-masked 
helicopter combat. We've got a full 
review in fact, in this very issue. 

There are 6 copies of this cool 
game to win, courtesy of the good 
people at Electronic Arts. 

Q. What is the full military name 
of the Comanche ? 

Redneck Rampage 

You've read the review, you’ve 
played the cover demo and now you 
know you need this game. We 
understand completely. Redneck 
Rampage gives everyone what they 
really wanted all along - bloody car- 
nage with plenty of funny bits. 

6 copies are up for grabs, good luck! 
Q. Upon which gome’s 3D engine 
is Redneck Rampage built? 



Callaghan’s Crosstime 
Saloon 

Top game this. Adventure games 
were becoming stale and dull and 
developers were beginning an ugly 
trend of trying to make then sexier 
by way of 3D graphics and too much 
FMV. Callaghan’s sorts this mess 
out with classic gameplay, rich char- 
acterisation and beautiful hand 
drawn 2D art. 

Win a copy and have a play, you’ll 
love it. Directsoft have 6 to win. 

Q. What character do you play in 
the game ? 


Dark Reign 

What more can we say 
about this fantastic game? 

You’ve been hanging out for 
it and now it's here. Real- 
time strategy taken to the 
next level is what you get. 

That means superior graph- 
ics ‘n all, but that’s not 
important, what matters is 
the brilliance of the game 
engine and design. This 
game has years worth of play in it. 

Find out for yourself. Activision 
have 6 copies of Dark Reign up for 
grabs so get cracking and enter! 

Q. What Australian company made 
Dark Reign? 


Blood 

It’s what it’s all about really, 
blood and lots of it. This over the 
top action game has some serious- 
ly wicked weaponry and cool level 
design. We liked it and so will you. 
Roadshow have kindly let us have 
6 copies to give away, thanks 
Roadshow, you’re unreal. 

Q. Name any 2 of Blood’s 
weapons. 


Issue # 12 winners: 
CONGRATULATIONS! 

New Quake 
A Bird, Lindiforne TAS. 

B Camilleri, Kelso NSW. 

G Brown, Kelmscott WA. 

B Butcher, Eudlo QLD. 

R Piper, Coachwood Park NSW. 
B Lee, Jabiru NT. 

MDK 

B Ward, Lithgow NSW. 

S Robinson, Gowrie ACT. 

R Reynolds, ESK QLD. 

D Porter, Colyton NSW. 
j Leong, Balaclava VIC. 

Battlecruiser 3000AD 
J Fell, East Keilor VIC. 

C Mclnnes, Baccus Marsh VIC. 

A Garth, Ballarat VIC. 

M Harris, Trevallyn TAS. 

C Gawn, Clayfield QLD. 

Logitech Surfman 
M Liddle, Smeaton VIC. 

J Myatt, Wurtulla QLD. 

C Morgan Karalee QLD. 

G Merkel, Somerville VIC. 

A Tuslan, East Hawthorne VIC. 

Interstate ‘ 76 
j Lester, Coomera QLD. 

R Brockwell, Grafton NSW. 

N Sice, Hobart TAS. 

B Dorff, Bonnet Bay NSW. 
j Kautto, Adamstown NSW. 

G Hunter, Sunshine VIC. 

Independence Day 
B Lee, Jabiru NT. 

K Hugh, Connells Point NSW. 

M Evans, Quorn SA. 

R Brockwell, Grafton NSW. 

M Brady, Paddington QLD. 

R Kantor, Maroochydore QLD. 

W Oliver RAAF Base NT. 

S Taylor, Newport VIC. 

M Harris, Trevallyn TAS. 

C Metcalf, Coffs Harbour NSW. 




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SMART 

The Battlecruiser guy 


Last of the 


D erek Smart is the epitome 
of the legacy that is the 
“lone programmer”. If you 
thought that mega corporations 
pumping out consistent mediocrity 
and treating you with contempt 
was the reality now and for the 
future, then take a look at this guy. 
A real fighter in no uncertain 
terms, Derek Smart's goal to cre- 
ate the most absorbing and com- 
plete game ever has cost him his 
wife, millions of dollars and 
seven years of his life. Now, reel- 
ing after the immoral actions of 
his last publisher, Take 2, releas- 
ing an unfinished game, he has 
stuck to his guns and is deter- 
mined to fix it for the many buy- 
ers out there. 

This month, join us with a world 
first exclusive interview with the 
man himself, Derek Smart, and 
his media manager John 
Stegenga, where we put the hard 
questions to them. 


How did you keep up with the 
progress of the technology ond 
apply it to BC3K? 

It was an uphill climb, because 
when I started I couldn’t draw a 
3D box to save my life. Back in 
those days the art of development 
was stuck with a select group of 
people run by large companies and 
if you weren’t in the know of one 
of the boys so to speak you were 
classed as an outsider. So you real- 
ly couldn’t get access to the tech- 
nology at all. 

I had no other choice but to start 
from the ground up and work my 
way from there. I had to educate 
myself and engross myself in 
many books. I now have over a 
thousand books on every aspect of 
graphics. I basically read every- 
thing from scratch where 2D and 
3D graphics are concerned. 
Artificial Intelligence was still in 
its infancy, and as I was studying it 
at the time at University, I decided 




PROGRAMMERS 


whot was the inspiration for 
Battlecruiser 3000AD? 

I just got tired of playing other 
people’s games! I was stuck in a 
boring market doing all kinds of 
crazy things and studying at the 
same time. Games were ones like 
Echelon, Starflight and Starfleet. 
The more games I bought, the 
more I wanted to change the 
industry. I had an old Amstrad 
and not many things for it, so I 
sat down one day and thought 
about what it would be like to cre- 
ate a game containing all the ele- 
ments of every game I played. I 
was a fan of Flight Sims, Strategy 
and Ninja Fighter was the best 
game at the time. 

I sat down and put some ideas 
together and simply drew from 
knowledge of the games I played. 
The games like flight sims were 
the most fun as well as the strate- 
gic ones. 

Many years ago, the development 
of games saw the technology 
move very quickly. VGA was ini- 
tially the only option then it 
moved onto Super VGA and new 
engines for 3D technology were 
emerging too. 


to use the knowledge I learned to 
build the game I wanted. Every 
time I bought a game and saw 
something cool, I wanted to do it 
and eventually I came up with a 
pattern schedule for the game. 

Did you release BC3K now 
because you figured that now is 
the best compromise in the 
terms of 3D acceleration just 
coming in, or was it a case that 
you just finished the gome and 
it was time to get it out? 

I did not release it! I have not 
released it! As far as I’m concerned, 



Battle Cruiser 3000AD does not 
exist in release form. The release of 
Battle Cruiser was the publisher’s 
decision and one which I did not 
support. All I’m doing is patching a 
game which in my opinion was 
never finished. I’ve never acknowl- 
edged it as finished and released. 

Never? 

It’s out there because of my pledge 
to gamers. I was a giver when I 
started. I didn't care about the 
money, I didn’t care!! I had enough 
money I could live on and it wasn’t 
receptive to the release many, many 
years ago. My incentive was to write 
a game that I enjoyed playing and 
know that if I enjoyed playing it, 
others would. When you chase tech- 
nology for years, a lot of things hap- 
pen and it costs money, it costs 
time. Throughout the years we’ve 
seen the gaming industry come 
from integrity to crap, as it were, 
where it’s all about the bottom line 
and one wants to write a game in 
six months. 

Over the seven yeors it took to 
produce BC3K, it must hove hod 
on effect on your personal life 
and the way you see the world... 
Oh yes indeed. Well basically it's 
a double edged sword really. I 
knew that in England I couldn’t 
get my game to be released 
because of the gaming industry. I 
mean in England back in those 
days everything up there lost. 
Games happened in the states 
first and fortunately having dual 
nationality, I knew that if I want- 
ed to get my game done I had to 
go there. I sat down and thought 
about it. I got married young and 
I was excited about the game - 
especially after the first demo 
came out. I had to choose, and 
PC Games Plus gave me the 
cover for a game that I hadn't 
even finished. 

That kind of went to my head and 
it was a boost, a huge boost. My 
British wife however didn't want 
to come to the states and we 
talked about it and had a mutual 
separation. I went to the US and 
got divorced. 

Just going back a step, the 
publishers , the Gametik situa- 
tion, what’s the truth, what 
really happened behind the 
scenes there? 

I can't really for fear of violating 
my contractual obligations to 
Gametek and other publishers. I 
can however say that Gametek 
wanted to release the game at 
Xmas, but it wasn’t finished. Take 

PCtao(% 



u 


A " 7 

• * 

iP 

B' 



Games as complex as BC300AD take 
a team of programmers a couple of 
years to complete. Let one guy do it 
all and it takes seven... 



2 however, went ahead and 
released it anyway. Gametek then 
contacted me because Take 2 had 
sent them a CD ROM of the 
release despite the fact that I had 
already told them in person that 
the game was not finished and did 
not sanction the release. 

I went on to explain that it would 
take me another six months to com- 
plete and yet didn’t even know 
where to start because I had no 
money and no funding. They asked 
me if I could fix it, which I 
answered yes, just wait. Which is 
what they did. So I got the mailing 
list together and a few cronies who 


were fans of the game and Gametek 
and proceeded to debug the game 
and put it all together for release. 
Gametek wanted to release it in 
March, and I was targeting the D 
patch, which was the patch that 
had all the features in and all the 
critical bugs fixed for March, but of 
course the unit slipped and 
Gametek could see the C4 patch 
was by all means an excellent patch 
for the game. They released it with- 
out telling us. 

We told Gametek not to do it, but 
they went ahead. I hadn’t even 
written the manual because the 
game wasn’t finished. Instead, they 
took my 1995 notes for the testers 
which they used to familiarise 
themselves with the game, took a 
few screen shots and shipped it. I 
only found out my game had 
shipped when somebody contacted 
me and asked for help! 

(John) It was an interesting one, 
because I had some associates in 
the states and we were going to go 
out and buy a copy to find out what 
they had put on the disk. 

(Derek) We had no idea what was 
on it! We didn’t know how they 
shipped it. I even thought it was a 
hoax! I asked a guy who works for 
me in England to get me a copy of 
the game from the store, but he 
already had it! 

I immediately contacted Gametek 


ed me on Tuesday and explained 
that they had to release. Some dis- 
tributors were importing dud U.S. 
units into the U.K. which were hurt- 
ing the market and giving the game 
a bad rap. In reality though, they 
pulled the same stunt as Take 2; 
“ship it, Derek will fix it”. 

(John) I do have to interject 
because they did do a much 
classier job than Take 2. 

(Derek) Yes, they did. Take 2 stuck 
the CD in a cardboard sleeve print- 
ed in four colours and a 20 page 
manual that was done in a font that 
wasn’t even type corrected! 

(John) Black and white. 

(Derek) Take 2 rushed it out, I’ve 
received Beta software from people, 
Alpha software from server manu- 
facturers that had better manuals 
and documentation with it!!! At 
least Gametek went to the expense 
of putting together a professionally 
done, accurate, condensed manual, 
with all the features in the patch. 
The UK release became a best sell- 
er that's still on the charts in the 
U.K. at the time of this interview. It 
turned out that the U.K. customers 
had a better experience than the 
North American customer who 
ended up buying the box with the 
Take 2 logo. 

(John) The UK version went 
straight to the top twelve. It went 
to the top eight and remained in 
those positions for about three 
weeks. As of yesterday, it’s still in 
the top twenty, and that’s just the 
C4 patch. 

How much support ore you going 
to continue to give the product? 
Well, I’m going to continue to sup- 
port the product. Right now, unfor- 
tunately due to funding and 
resources, I’ve had to strip out 
some things from my vision of 
Battle Cruiser 3000 and I’m wind- 
ing down development right now. 
As far as I'm concerned the C5 
patch works and I'm wrapping up 
the manual and the format. 

Version one which comes out in 
the Summer is going to mark the 


“I did not release it! I have not released it! As far as I’m 
concerned. Battle Cruiser 3000 AD does not exist in release 
form. The release of Battle Cruiser was the publisher s 
decision and one which I did not support...! only found out 
my game had shipped when somebody contacted me and 
asked for help!” 


but they didn’t get back to me. I did 
a press release denouncing the ver- 
sion, which upped their sales 
tremendously (laugh). They contact- 


end of this version of Battle 
Cruiser. I can't continue patching 
to fix the game for which I’m not 
getting paid. Gametek were gener- 




occupy several hours of an 
evening. Despite no collision detec- 
tion, it showed that the potential 
was there to have the engine port- 
ed. It runs in high colour and fol- 
lows the trend of Windows 95 tak- 
ing over games right now. It’s 
gonna be really good. 

(Derek) Battle Cruiser 3030 will 
have thirty extra features. The most 
important feature will be high 
colour, which will give more 
advanced lighting, high colour sur- 
face maps and a new Battle Cruiser 
class. The player will also be able 
to fly any ship he wants and buy 
any ship he wants. Fleet 
Commander Control, which I 
ripped out of BC3K, will be includ- 
ed and I’m putting in four player 
network support as a test for battle- 
zone. Any player can be a server 
and play across the Internet. 

I've known about Open GL for a 
number of years. I know how to 
program in Open GL so using the 
MGL library to port Battle Cruiser 
from DOS to Win 32 would mean 
that it would have Direct X and 
Open GL support therefore sup- 
porting every 3D graphics accelera- 
tor on the planet. 

If it had been released properly 
to the specifications that you 
hod originally planned, would 
you hove continued in it's 
development? 

Ah yes, it’s still going according to 
plan. Battle Cruiser hasn’t been 
released in a good light. Had it been 
released properly, I would probably 
be working on multi player by now. 


ous enough to offer to pay me roy- 
alties to support the game for 
them, but I don’t have a large com- 
pany. There’s only myself and a 
couple of volunteers however, the 
formation of a larger company is 
only barely in discussion. 

So after 7 years Derek, have 
you mode any money out of 
Bottle Cruiser? 

Absolutely not. It's cost me over 
four million dollars of my own 
money and some of the publishers 
money to get Battle Cruiser out, 
and I haven’t made a penny on it. 

Do You expect to? 

No, I don’t. Money spent by Take 2 
and Mission Studios, only funded 
the game for a period of two years. 
Take 2 handled the marketing, the 
ads, the packaging and all that. I 
don’t know if they’ve made money, 
but I have not made a single penny 
on Battle Cruiser as it were. 

So what ore you going to do 
next? Your reputation os a 
genius programmer has been 
enhanced and everybody knows 
you now, so are you going to 
move on and do the Richard 
Garriot and John Romero thing 
and head up the company and 
hove a large staff? 

Well I already have a company and 
some very cool friends, they all 
have jobs, and all work part time. 
For now, I have no intention of 
expanding the company because 
once I do that it means I have 
more responsibilities and I don't 


want to be in business. I want to 
be a game developer! Maybe one 
day I’ll probably hire a couple of in 
house guys and move on but it’s 
not in the near future. Battle 
Cruiser was designed to be a gam- 
ing environment not a one-off title. 
Right now though, the Windows 
95, version of the game, “Battle 
Cruiser 3030 AD for Windows” is 
already in development. 

(John) There’s a small group of four 
or five of us who received a surprise 
E-mail from Derek containing a 
nice little attachment that gave us a 
preview of Battle Cruiser's planetary 
transversal engine for Windows 95. 
This surprised us all immensely, 
especially since he’d been doing it 
in the background instead of writ- 
ing the manual he's been promising 
everyone (laugh). 

But it was a wonderful thing to 


fe'w 


The world has always needed a truly 
deep sci-fi adventure/trading/combat/ 
diplomacy & exploration game. 
Privateer is all over in a weekend, 
Elite just crashes...BC3K is the one 



BC3K Web sites. 


The Best 

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•http://www.unlv.edu/-k 

enitzki 

•http://home.sol.no/cdolv 

ik/Research.html 

•http://www.inconnect.co 

m/-rhilton/ 


The Rest 

•http://www.geocities.co 

m/SiliconValley/9579/bat- 

tle.html 

•http://www.rcsn.nb.ca/al 

umni/truemang/bc30ooad 

.htm 

•http:/ /www.worldac- 

cess.nl/-schmitzp/bc3000 

ad.html 

•http://www.mindspring.co 

m/-smithlc/bc30ooad.htm 

•http://www.dragonfire.ne 

t/-odessoft/ 

•http://www.access.digex. 

net/-umbra/ 

•http://www.ourworld.co 

mpuserve.com/home- 

pages/drquest/bc3k.htm 

•http://www.microweb.co 

m/asante/bc3ooo/ 

•http://www.passions.res 

earch.kpn.com/-bolle/bat 

tle/battle.html 

•http://www.inforamp.net 

/-ians 

•http://www.garyw.demon 

.c0.uk/bc3k.html 

•http://www.threedee.de 

mon.co.uk 

•http:dspace.dial.pipex.co 

m/town/square/gq95/ 

•http://www.inconnect.co 

m/-rhilton/parachat.htm 

(chat) 





So you're not really going to 
abandon BC 3000 until you ore 
sure that it’s in a stable form 
that the customers will enjoy? 
Right. It’s in a credible form right 
now which is why we all call on 
John and all the founding mem- 
bers to say C5 rev 3 is good. 
Nobody’s reporting bugs anymore, 
everyone’s bored (laugh). 

(John) At least the testers are, 
cause there's nothing for us to 
hunt down. 

(Derek) All that needs to be done 
now is for the D patch. The 
testers have suggested that I go 
and do the manual and not return 
until it’s done. Which is what I’ve 
been doing. 

How did you fund the develop- 
ment? 

(Derek) I was an IBM consultant 
for a while, then for DEC, Dell and 
Novell. I basically used my own 
money to fund BC3K. I got loans 
from my mother who I owe so 
much I’ve lost count. My bank 
have also provided some loans. My 
only overheads were buying the 
tools I needed. Anything I couldn't 
buy I just wrote myself. 

The only 3rd party libraries in Battle 
Cruiser I use are the sound 
libraries, and the 2D libraries which 
I use for graphics card detection. It 
took so long because back when I 
started you couldn’t find libraries to 
buy. You wrote your own or signed 
up with a development house. I did 
not want to hand over control of my 
company and product to anyone 
who was going to chop it up. I was 
the only one who wrote it, I didn’t 
have 50 or 60 people working for 
me. It was only three years ago that 
I went full time after funding from 
Mission Studios who funded me for 
a year until JF3 slipped . They were 
pressured by the distributors and 
had to make a choice. Bob who had 
a proven track record with the Jet 
Fighter series, therefore won the 
funding. I lost all funding and we 
had a mutual parting of ways and 
the rights were returned back to 
me. Take 2 saw a review of the 
game in a magazine and called me 
up, and we were in business. 

With all the flamers and abuse 
you receive, why do you persist 
on the Usenet? 

(Derek) Two reasons. One, sticks 
and stones, end of story. Very few 
people can tell me what to do and 
the only person who could, my 
father is now dead. As long as 
he’s not around to lecture me 
nobody else can. 

Secondly, The only way you can 


hurt me is in my head and since 
no one has the slightest potential 
of doing that it doesn’t bother me. 

I don’t believe that anyone who 
spends 40 dollars on a game 
deserves a bad game but neither 
do they have the right to be insult- 
ing to the person who spends half 
his life writing it. If you don’t like 
the game, return it. The customer 
is always right but if they walk into 
my “shop” with a gun I’m going to 
hit them with a baseball bat. On 
the other hand though there is 
plenty of supporters out there. In 
fact some of the hardest critics are 
now testers for BC3K. It’s a double 
edged sword like any democratic 
society. When it becomes insulting 
though, fight fire with fire. 

If it hod been released proper- 
ly, would you have had the 
some attitude? 

Yes. Even if the game had been 
released in the proper light, there 
will always be one more person 
out there waiting to say something 
stupid. 

(John) MOO 2 was released with 
problems. Yet the development 
team hasn’t made a presence to say 
they are going to fix it, though they 
did. CIV 2 was released with bugs, 
It was patched but without any offi- 
cial announcements to say that it 
was going to. Derek however, 
announced that Take2 had unjustly 
released the game without his per- 
mission, but even without payment 
he ‘s going to fix it anyway. The 
flames although initially immense 
died down with every patch. 

Do you think all the abuse was 
because the gaming public 
rarely get a chance to communi- 
cate with the developer/pro- 
grammer? 

Not necessarily, because there are 
plenty of flamers out there with 
nothing to do. One of my worst crit- 
ics, Commander Krud didn't even 
own the game. So, I got his address 
and sent him a copy of BC3K and 
he’s never criticised me since. Then 
the guy gets on line and says I 
never doubted Derek would fix the 
game, I just didn’t like his ethics. 

what do you ploy in your spare 
time, Derek.? 

(Derek) I don’t play other games, I 
haven't the time. I live in Miami 
and I spend a lot of time with my 
fiancee on the beach. I take my 
laptop with me, go figure (laugh). 
Most evenings we spend together 
and she sits with me watching TV 
whilst I code. 

Jere Lawrence £ Ben Mansill 



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Flying Saucer 





Category 


Players 


Publisher 


Action/UFO sim 
1 

Postlinear 

August/September 


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3n Cover Soon SHOCK! 


at do you do 
when your 
girlfriend is 
abducted by aliens? 

Easy, nip down to the 
world famous Area 51, 
steal one of the many 
UFOs lying around the 
parking lot and embark 
on an epic quest to win 
her back. Sounds sensible enough, 
or at least it did to developers 
PostLinear, who simply wanted to do 
a UFO combat flight sim and needed 
a storyline to tie it all together. 

About time too, we say. Turning 
the tables on conventional flight 
sim wisdom, Flying Saucer puts 
you in the cockpit of the ship 
you’re probably more used to see- 
ing in your targets. Great care has 
been taken to model the game’s 
flight characteristics on the way 
these things are supposed to fly. 
That’s to say, they don’t bank, they 
can come to a complete stop in an 


instant and can accelerate in a 
manner that ought to leave you 
squished up against the back wall. 

Combat will initially be against 
the best the USAF can muster, 
being mainly the F-22. As the 
game develops, the Air Force per- 
fects the reverse-engineering of 
captured UFOs and begins to field 
their own variant. Eventually the 
game ends up in deep space, 
where you and your UFO are the 
sole defense against an alien race 
on their way to take over the world. 

Along the way all the cliched 
locations you’d expect are visited. 
Mayan temples, Egyptian pyra- 
mids, Stonehenge are all there in 
full 3D, with the smart money bet- 
ting on an Easter Island visit too. 

PostLinear are a new company 
founded by Ron Martinez, ex- VP of 
Business and Creative Services at 
Spectrum Holobyte. They’ve got 4 
other projects under way which 
use this new 3D engine. 


Category 


Players 


Publisher 


| Strategy 
1 1-8 

| Bungie 

I August/September 


Why Myth? Cos 
that's what effeminte 
archers do when they 
don't hit. 


N o resources to manage, no 
buildings to build, no end- 
less source of cannon fod- 
der via a carefully crafted industri- 
al machine and no dinky top- 
down view. How then, is this a 
“real-time strategy game”? 

Because that’s what you get - 
strategy combat, happening in 
real-time. 

We’ve all been lulled into the 
C&C way of real-timing these 
days, but the genre has a vast 
untapped wealth of potential and 
Bungie (famous for the Macintosh 
Doom-clone Marathon) think 
they’ve nailed it. 

While ostensibly a multiplayer 


■si All (Jir'Bivgj . ; 

Long luemie* ot tiu* civilized nations, the truce which brought V 
the fir'Bolg and their lamed bowmen into the* Light wa* toiged by 
uti'Kahn the Great King and Caliban during the Sword Age. 


V 


game, Myth does have set mis- 
sions for single play. Each has a 
set army, although some missions 
feature reinforcements which 
arrive during the course of a bat- 
tle. Nothing fancy, just pure strat- 
egy, is what you get. Units which 
survive a battle gain experience 
points and are carried over to sub- 
sequent missions. The only con- 
cession Bungie seem to have 
made to traditional elements of 
the genre is blood - lots of blood. 
As you can see from the screen- 


shots the battlefield is overflowing 
with the stuff. Any blood let stays, 
any severed heads roll down the 
slope, severed limbs litter the 
place... You get the idea. 

The terrain is fully 3D and camera 
angles move to provide the most 
sensible view in a system similar to 
Tomb Raider’s dynamic camera. 

Bungie are busy optimising the 
code to get the most out of the 
engine. They want “2 or 3 hun- 
dred” simultaneous unit on the 
battlefield on an average machine. 


Tomato sauce, green jelly and 
waffles. 


The release date for Myth is 
uncertain at this stage due to its 
unique nature, but count on it 
being out by the end of 1997. 













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Multiplayer support will be 
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X-Car 


Category 


Players 


Publisher 


Available 


Racing 
| l-TBA 
Bethesda 
| July/August 


bole thing smells very much 
eed for Speed, but bigger and 
We. More tracks, more cars, 
tnisable reality controls" even, 
/your probable outlay of $89.95, 
ii get: 8 tracks based on real ear- 
ns, 10 pretend tracks, 4 test tracks 
\ “hi-tech, near future race 
\es”. That's a whole lot more 
ed for Speed. 

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Flying 


Category 


Players 


Publisher 


Available 


Action/UFO sim 

| l 

Postlinear 

August/September 


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Atlantis 

The lost tales 


Category 

Players 

Publisher 

Available 


Graphical adventure 
1 

Cryo 

August 


More bloody lost world/ 
x-files/easter island things. 

Probably 



Y es, it's another stunningly 
beautiful adventure from 
French developers Cryo. 
Set, funnily enough, in Atlantis 
you take the part of Seth, a ‘com- 
panion’ to Queen Rhea, and your 
task is to protect her and rescue 
her when she gets kidnapped. 
There’s ioo chapters to make 


X-Cars? Wasn’t that a show with 
Peter Brock about irresponsible 
drivers? Or has this game got 
Gillian Anderson too? 


A driving game 
is only as good 
as its driving 
model. If it feels crap- 
py, then no amount of 
flash graphics can 
save it. We have only 
played a demo version 
of X-Car, which was 
less than impressive, so judgement 
will have to wait until review time. 

The idea is to put you in control of 
“a collection of revolutionary high- 
tech, race bred automobiles” - just 
like those found in Need for 
Speed/NFS II, we suspect. In fact, 


However, you can't 
move in 360 degrees 


your way through, with an esti- 
mated playing time of around 30 
hours and all the scenarios look 
absolutely fantastic. 

The best looking part of Atlantis, 
though, is the intro sequence - 
truly one of the best we have ever 
seen. The images are crystal clear, 
and beautifully rendered and with 
the atmospheric 
music and cinematic 


effects it makes for a 


truly amazing experi- 
ence. The game itself 
looks absolutely stun- 
ning as well. A first 
person perspective is 
used, with a 360 
degree rotatable view 
via the mouse. 


PClRiRMlrlfeE/ 



unfortunately, and this area is 
where the game might tend to fall 
down juuust a little - gameplay. 

There are around 50 characters 
to interact with throughout the 
story, and 5 worlds to explore but 
in the preview version we had a 
look at there was a lot of aimless 
wandering around. At first, it's 
no big deal, because the scenery 
is so beautiful that you tend not 
to notice. After a while though it 
does get a tad annoying, and 
there didn’t seem to be enough 
control over your movement 
either. You might be able to look 


around 360 degrees, but mostly 
all you can do is move in one or 
two directions. Then there’s the 
characters - interaction is fairly 
limited, and we found ourselves 
just running through the options 
presented (talk about the Queen, 
talk about someone else, etc) 
until something happened. 
However, it was only a preview 
version, and the puzzles were 
pretty good. Atlantis: The Lost 
Tales looks fantastic, but as to 
whether it turns out to be a fan- 
tastic game overall we’ll have to 
let you know. 


X-Car 


Category 

Players 

Publisher 

Available 


Racing 

l-TBA 

Bethesda 

July/August 


the whole thing smells very much 
like Need for Speed, but bigger and 
with more. More tracks, more cars, 
“customisable reality controls” even. 
For your probable outlay of $89.95, 
you get: 8 tracks based on real cir- 
cuits, 10 pretend tracks, 4 test tracks 
and 15 “hi-tech, near future race 
machines”. That's a whole lot more 
than Need for Speed. 

It's all built around Bethesda’s 
3D X(n)gine. This is what the 
Terminator games are 
built with and they 
run in SVGA at good 
speeds on a reason- 
able system, so after 
tweaking it for a dri- 
ving game the results 
should be good. 

Many car setup 
options are incorpo- 
rated, including 
recorded telemetry 
data to assist configur- 


ing your car for peak performance. 

Multiplayer support will be 
included out of the box. That 
means network and modem. 
Nothing has been said of internet 
play yet and it appears the olde 
worlde direct serial cable seems to 
have been ignored completely. 

More cars and tracks than other 
games does not automatically quali- 
fy this as better, so wait until the 
full review for the final word. 



El 29 














■■H 


■ 



Duckman- 

The legend of the fall 


Category 

Players 

Publisher 

Available 


Graphic adventure 
1 

Playmates Interactive 
August/ September 







I t's the television show that 
has cult written all over it; 
quirky and politically-very- 
incorrect characters, ‘name’ 
Hollywood actors in lead 
roles (Jason Alexander, Nancy 
Travis, Dweezil Zappa, Tim 
Curry), and cameos from the 
likes of Sandra Bernhard, 

David Duchovny, Bronson 
Pichot, Lisa Kudrow, Sheena 
Easton and others, as 
well as hilarious 
plots and bitingly 
funny satire. 

For those as-yet- 
unenlightened among us, 
Duckman is a cartoon in 
the anti-Disney mould of 
the Simpsons, with per- 
haps (dare we say it) 
even more of a dark 
side. We’ve only recently had the 
pleasure of viewing this classic 
show in Australia so if you haven’t 
seen it yet, get into it now - 
Monday nights at around n on the 


Stokes network. The 
central character, 
Duckman himself 
(given voice by Jason 
Alexander of Seinfeld 
fame) is a complete loser 
of a private detective 
and failed single 
parent family man. 
His family is comprised 
of his two and a half sons - 
one has two heads for one body 
and the other has one body and no 
Drain. His sister in law, and dead 
wife’s twin, Bernice (Nancy Travis 
from Almost Perfect) lives with 
him and her mission is to make 
Duckman’s life as miserable as 
possible, while Granma-ma just 
watches TV and farts (achiev- 
ng much the same effect that 
Bernice aspires to). 

Every hero needs his sidekick and 
straight guy though, and Duckman’s 
is Comfed, a pig with a taste for 
solving crime. His tireless efforts 
usually save Duckman from his stu- 
pidity, and his 
deadpan deliv- 
ery is often 
where some of 
the funniest 
lines emerge - 


imagine a cross 
between Joe Friday and 
Stephen Wright. Then 
there’s the office assis- 
tants, Fluffy and 
Uranus, annoyingly 
cute care bear like crea- 
tures that get squashed, 
mutilated, and general- 
ly destroyed on a regu- 
lar basis by Duckman, 
yet they remain as cheerful as ever - 
they're essentially your Ned Flanders 
type characters. 

And this provides a nice little 
segue into the game itself, we’ve 
only had a look at a fairly limited 
demo version, but there’s plenty of 
opportunity to traumatise the 
annoying little assistants. For 
example, clicking on the fish tank 
in their house (where they are try- 
ing to train a piranha to be nicer to 
other animals) will get you a nice 
little animation of Duckman stuff- 
ing the bears into the fish tank and 
them getting their heads bitten off. 
Not to worry though, cheerfully 
singing ‘this is the way we sew our 
heads, sew our heads...’ they'll 
soon be ready to assist you once 
again. There’s always the 
microwave to test out... 


It’s not all destructifying innocent- 
ly annoying care bears, though, 
there's a plot as well! It starts from 
the peak of Duckman’s career, his 
TV show is a hit, he can afford 
expensive prostitutes, and everything 
is looking good for him. At the stu- 
dios though, a decision is made to 
enhance Duckman’s image, and 
replace him with a virile and good 
looking character. So begins 
Duckman’s fall from fame (hence 
the tide), and so begins your task to 
drag him back up from the 
abyss to stardom once again. It’s 
essentially a point and click 
adventure, with an authentic 
animated style - apparendy 
there’s over 10,000 hand-ren- 
dered frames for around 40 
locations and 80 scenes. Then 
there were the voices - 
Duckman sounded suspiciously 
like someone trying to sound 
like Duckman rather than David 
Jason’s Duckman, but the blurb 
proclaims that ‘many of the 
stars from the show’ feature in 
the dialogue. In truth, it doesn’t 
really matter all that much, all 
the voices we heard were fine 
(and plenty funny too). It looks 
good, sounds (mosdy) good, and 
if it’s anywhere close to the stan- 
dard of the TV show, then it's 
going to be one to watch out for. 
We’ll let you know more when 
we get the full version. 




Duckman - looking very much like the sort of graphic 
adventure we will get lots of letters in Oracle about. 


PC 











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Oracle 2174 







humans as well as make war with 
both when it suits their purpose. 
They also promise a free ‘Internet 
lobby matching service’ - not a 
games server a’la Westwood Chat 
or Battle.net, but a good move 
nonetheless, as well as support for 
network and modem play of 
course. 

It all sounds pretty damn great to 
use, with the ability to build and 
maintain huge empires that span 
the dawn of civilisation through 
10,000 years, recreate historical bat- 
tles like Sparta and Athens, or 
Persia and Macedonia, and make 
use of around 40 unit types, 
upgrades and buildings. There’s 
more too - true terrain elevation, 
massive maps, a detailed economic 
model, diplomacy, trade - and all in 
real time! It really looks like it might 
be a jaw dropper of a game. At 
PowerPlay we tend to get a bit jaded 
about games at times, particularly 
those in the real time action strategy 
genre, but upcoming releases like 
Dark Reign and Age of Empires 
reaffirm our faith considerably. As 
soon as we get our hands on a copy, 
we'll let you know whether it’s as 
good as it sounds - let's hope it is. 


CIC meets Civ2 on an 
even bigger scale with 
heaps off improvements 
to boot. Oh yes! 


and multi player 
replayability. Then 
there’s the map editor and genera- 
tor, so you’ll be able to create and 
edit maps, as well as the opportu- 
nity to play in an infinite number 
of worlds. 

One of the greatest disappoint- 
ments with Civilisation was the 
lack of multiplayability, and this 
marred an otherwise excellent 
game, and one of the major criti- 
cisms of Civnet was that it was so 
buggy. Shelley has a somewhat 
unique view on the whole multi- 
player issue, and has said 
“Multiplayer is very hot right 
now.. .[but] I think it’s very prema- 
ture to ignore the single player”. 
He says that Age of Empires has 
been designed from the ground 
up as a multiplayer game, though 
it also has substantial 
single player support 
with multiple levels of 
difficulty and 12 differ- 
ent civilisations to 
choose from. Then 
there’s the AI for sin- 
gle and multiplayer 
games - Ensemble 
promise a robust AI 
that will form alliances 
with other AI and 


T his, simply put, looks 

absolutely fantastic. How 
many of you played Civ2 
and thought how much fun it 
would be to have real time combat 
sequences? How many of you 
played Warcraft 2 or C&C and 
wondered what it would be like if 
the games had more scope - like 
10,000 years worth of develop- 
ment? Well, ok, maybe not all that 
many of you had thoughts along 
those lines, but it's a damn good 
idea isn’t it? In fact, it’s a damn 
good idea that ex-MicroProse 
developer Bruce Shelley had and 


when he teamed up with 
Ensemble Studios it was turned 
into a concept and soon you’re 
going to be able to get your grub- 
by hands on what might be an 
awesome game. 

As with another release, from 
(roughly) the same genre, Dark 
Reign, Age Of Empires has taken 
all the good bits from Civ2, C&C 
and Warcraft2 and added plenty of 
enhancements as well. To begin 
with, there’s going to be a wide 
range of victory conditions for 
enhanced replayability. As well, 
there will be plenty of technologi- 
cal developments 
(more than one games 
worth) so that you can 
develop with a num- 
ber of different strate- 
gies, again for single 


Age of 


Category 


Players 


Publisher 


Available 


Real time action strategy 
| l-TBA 
| Microsoft 
| August/ September 
















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Little Big Adventure 2 



you will see Twinsen 
from the usual per- 
spective, but once he 
starts walking around the camera 
will pan or swing to accommodate 
the best and most useful view. 
Backgrounds are promised to be 
more sumptuously detailed than 
the already pristine SVGA splen- 
dour of the first game. The anima- 
tion, too, will be of an even higher 
quality. 

As far as the gameplay is con- 
cerned, Twinsen will still be able to 
operate in several different behav- 
iour modes (you know, Athletic, 
Aggressive, Discreet, and Normal) 


and certainly ought to have 
retained his wicked ‘magic ball’ (as 
well as having collected a number 
of additional weapons in the mean 
time). Oh, and saving games will 
thankfully be a much simpler and 
more straightforward task. Phew! 

If some doubt still lingers as to 
whether Adeline can scale such 
mighty heights again, just remem- 
ber this. With Alone In The Dark, 
LBA, and Time Commando already 
inked in as PC classics, they 
haven’t made a poor game yet. 

Why on earth would they want to 
start now? 

David Wildgoose 


Category 


Players 


Publisher 


Available 


Adventure 

| 1 

| Activision 
| September 


Q uite some time has passed 
since the first opportunity 
I had to journey to the 
beautiful planet of Twinsun - so- 
called because it is indeed situated 
directly between two suns, creat- 
ing a kind of ‘polar ring' at the 
equator. It's also been nearly three 
years, in fact, since I waved a teary 
goodbye to Twinsen himself, and 
all his friends (his lovely wife Zoe, 
the Quetches, the Grobos, the 
Rabibunnies, the EVIL-and-not- 
fun-at-all-really Dr Funfrock) on 
Principal Island. I don’t know 
about you, but I've missed them 
all terribly. 

So please excuse me for getting 
all extravagantly carried away and 
shamelessly excited about the 
news that Little Big Adventure 2 
is in the process of being complet- 
ed by those French folk at Adeline 
and primed for 
release later 
this year. Yay! 

Will it be like 
old times 
again? Will it 
be as elegantly 
playable? Will 
the story be told 
in that beguil- 

ingly, heartbreakingly innocent 
fashion again? Will it manage to 
tippy-toe along that same precise 
line between drama-charged adven- 
ture and swashbuckling action? 
Will the graphics possess the same 
extraordinary beauty? Will the cast 
of characters be as lovable and 
memorable and charismatic and 
adorable? Will it have abandoned 
that appallingly ill-conceived save 
game method? 

According to Adeline, the answer 
to all these questions is an unre- 
served “YES!”. It will be like old 
times again - only better. For the 
moment, however, we’ll just have 
to take their word for it. Since, as 


Exquisite graphics 
even better than the 
first one. It looks like 
Adeline are onto 
another winner 


is increasingly the case, the only 
pre-release information we can get 
hold of (beyond the most general 
and vague gameplay indications) is 
what the graphics will be like. 
Either gameplay is viewed as negli- 
gible, or it’s much easier to hype 
the visual side of things. Or per- 
haps a combination of both. Hmm. 

So we know that, while LBA pre- 
sented a flick-screen isometric 
view, its sequel has evolved to 
incorporate a moving camera view. 
Thus, when you enter a location 











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From Brisbane comes the next world-beating killer game. 

by Ben Mansill 


ow does an unknown all game developers were as organ- 

Australian company with ised and professional as Auran 
no track record gain the then there would be no late 
excited attention of the world’s games. Period, 

gamers? This is no easy feat - espe- It starts and finishes with the 
dally considering the fact that team. These guys not only turn up 

Dark Reign is about to enter a to work in their Dark Reign 

genre which is more critically Development Team shirts - they 

analysed than any other. even iron them! Wild eh?! All have 

We gamers know the answer. a passion for the project 

It’s a simple truth that that's impossible to 

transcends flash graph- fake. They bubbled 

ics or star-studded excitedly as the 

FMV - it’s game- most rninor °f 

play and Dark „*** details was 

Reign has it in * ^ explained. We 

abundance. The old ^ played a few network 

generation of real-time strat- ^ games; “please be gen- 

egy had gone about as far as it ~ tie with me” I begged, 

could. It was time for an overhaul. They sincerely agreed to take 

New unit and terrain graphics are it easy and just demonstrate the 

no longer enough. Slight re-work- game features... Well, that was 

ings of established methods are before the game started, once 

becoming dull. We need some- underway it was all on. No special 

thing completely revolutionary and consideration, I think they’d for- 

Dark Reign delivers. gotten I existed - they were playing 

This is the next generation of their game and that was all that 

real-time strategy and it’s come mattered. These were people who 

from a small Brisbane company had their dream job and knew it. 

with no previous experience. Dark Reign really is a game for 

We had to know more. So, right gamers, by gamers. They’ll be 

when the development team was at playing the full game for months 

its peak of ultra-productive super- to come just as excitedly as you 

efficiency, finishing Dark Reign will be. It would be nice to imag- 

and incorporating those finishing ine that all games were made by 
touches, 1 visited and made them such people... 
spend a whole day showing me 

their gear. Yes, Dark Reign will be The guy that made it happen 
i day late and it’s my fault. Greg Lane is the boss. He, unlike 

most game producers, is passionate- 

The Team ly concerned with both getting the 

Having spent time in the offices game to the gamers on time and 

of big ‘n fabulous overseas devel- making sure it's done right. Most 

opers, I wasn't expecting much... producers are only concerned with 
Boy was I surprised! Auran is a the former. Greg also has grand 

shining example of how a develop- plans for Auran. After Dark Reign 

ment team ought to be run. Never is completed the team heads off to 

again will I tolerate late games! If Fiji for a break (take note employ- 


ers: overseas holidays motivate), 
then they move to their glamorous 
new premises and get cracking on 
the next project. You’ll be hearing a 

lot about Auran in the coming things can 

years. They are destined to become grow a lot during a project like 
a major player in the international this. You need good financial 
games market, that looks certain. backing to be able to grow at the 

Greg took time out to answer a rate we have, 
few questions about the game, the How many people current work 

company and the future: for Auran and a brood breakdown 

of how many people do what? 

How did you get started? How We currently have 22 people. 15 

are directly involved with Dark 
Reign and the other 7 are manage- 
Auran started when my partner ment, marketing, web site and 
and I were talking about future office staff. Of the 15 doing work 
business opportunities during a on Dark Reign, 8 are program- 
new years eve party in 94/95. I ming staff and 7 are art staff, 
had always been 

involved with comput- The employees attitude in the 

ers and wargames and V # Auran offices is of razor- 

we thought that a win- sharp professionalism com- 

dow of opportuni- „ k 

ty existed fora enthusiasm - 

new company to 

write a multiplay- ' perspective 

er strategy game. you've got to be 

V % w* 1 pretty happy with 

From o * that, how hard was it to 

business/financing perspective, assemble such a team and how 
what process takes place do you maintain the otmos- 

between the initial concept and phere? 

To find these people was very 
hard. We have a well defined set 
That’s a big question and with- of criteria that we look for in our 

out writing a novel, one that’s staff and part of that is the ability 

hard to answer. I suppose that in to work well in a team environ- 

a nutshell it's very important to ment. I think that goes a long way 

have a concept and focus on it. to maintaining the right atmos- 

It’s very easy to loose track and phere in the office and the other 

that just adds time to the project. thing that really helps is the ping 

From a finance point of view, pong table. 



P 36 


PowerPlay 




The star programmers (modestly 
hiding behind a wall) 


What other projects do you hove 
planned? 

We have a number of other pro- 
jects planned during the course 
of the next year. 

Each of our pro- 
jects are num- 
bered internally 
as Pi, P2, P3 etc. 

Dark Reign is 
internally code 
named PiD. We 
have plans for 
PiC, PiH, PiV, 

P2, P3 and P4. The research and 
design work on a number of 
these projects has already been 
started or even completed in 
some cases. We don't wish to let 
the cat out of the bag on what 
they will be just yet, suffice to say 
that all of them will push the 
genre’s they are in to new 
heights! 


What's the relationship with 
Activision? Are you happy with 
their contribution? 

Activision are co-developing Dark 
Reign with us. The division of 
labour is such that the design work 
is done in LA and we do the art 
and coding here. There are a few 
areas of overlap but as a rule that’s 
where it stands. 


Interest in Dark Reign is very 
high, hove you had many direct 
enquiries from keen gamers? 

Absolutely, we always answer 
every single mail or email that 
comes into the office. We also 
participate in a weekly meeting 
on IRC (you can check our web 
site for details - http://www. 
auran.com ) in which we answer 
questions concerning the game. 


An abundance of 
3D rendered 
models is found 
in Dark reign, all 
done by the 
crew below 


How do you see the future of the 
internet for gamers? Is it the 
absolute future of gaming, or 
more an attractive value-adder 
for greater multiploy versatility? 

I think that people will still want 
to play games standalone, but that 
the internet will be a huge growth 
area in the future. I believe that we 
will shortly see an explosion of 
internet based multiplayer games. 
Also, with the advent of recent low 
latency connections, online gaming 
can only prosper. 

Whot do you ploy for fun Greg? 
What's in your personal collec- 
tion that you treasure and will 
always have around for o gome? 

I play War 2, Civilisation and a 
board game titled World in Flames 
(which by the way is also an 
Australian product). My all time 
favourite though and one that I 
still enjoy is DOOM. 


Do you hove any advice for 
anyone wonting to get into 
the industry - artists or pro- 
grammers for example? 

Send in your resume! We are 
growing at an incredible rate and 
we are always looking for great 
new talent. In the case of program- 
mers, they must have an excellent 
understanding of C and C++ and 
have been coding for some time. 
For artists, they must be creative 
and be excellent 2D or 3D artists, 
again with a number of years work 
experience. 

Did you have a clear plan for 
Dork Reign's development, with 
a set schedule, or was it a case 
of keep at it for os long os it 
takes? 

The DR schedule did grow during 
development, but only as a result of 
a broader market acceptance of the 
product, and not due to feature 
creep as is often the case. During 
each of these growth spurts we 
have had a defined set of goals for 
the product and we made sure we 
met these before continuing. 

The real-time strategy genre 
began with Dune 2 and was 
brought to the forefront with 
CCC and Warcraft, now it's 
looking like every developer 


either has a simi- 
lar gome already out, or one in 
development. Thus far they've 
all been fairly dull variations on 
the theme without any real 
progress being made, how will 
Dark Reign fore and why? 

I believe Dark Reign will fare 
very well. It is a mixture of all of 
the games you mentioned, but also 
includes a vast array of new fea- 
tures that none of our competitors 
have. With that mix I think we can 
only do better than anything else 
on the shelf. 

What do you like and dislike 
about both CGC and Warcraft/2? 

Firstly I think all of them are 
great games. We still play them 
and 1 think we drew on these 
games quite a bit. C&C has a really 
good feel to it. The movement and 
terrain is nice and overall it’s a fast 
paced game. War 2 I think excels 
in strategy and game balance. It is 
so well thought out and plays so 
easily that it’s a good example of 
the KISS principle. 

It seemed that you have many 
more ideas than could be 
included in the gome, con you 
use this overflow of concepts in 
later gomes ? Does Dark Reign 
hove a future of sequels ahead 
of it? 

Indeed it does. We 
have a list which we call 
the production overflow, 
which is to say all the 
features that won’t 
make it into Dark 
Reign. Work on Dark 
Reign 2 starts in late 
July and if you think 
Dark Reign is amazing 
wait till you see DR2! 


0 


In future war, foot- 
soldiers will look like 
this- The two protago- 
nists - the Raiders and 
(intet) the Guardians. 


PowerPlay 


P 37 



















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The big one has hit. You can safely delete those 
“not bad” games you thought you might play 
again one day, for here is Dark Reign and all the 
strategy gaming you’ll need for quite a while... 


N ow this is exciting. The 
games industry has been 
abuzz with the likes of “It's 
supposed to better than Command 
and Conquer”. In anticipation of 
the release, web pages have sprung 
up proclaiming a new era of Real 
Time Combat is about to dawn 
upon us. Even the usually hard- 
ened and cynical corridors of 


Plus 


www.activision.com 
www.auran.com -The 
Australian designers of 
Dark Reign. 


flUMn 


DARK REIRJJ 


>' »V 

isff 1 


w V? 


'V- i 


Old-style tank melee’s still occur, but this is a 
game of high-tech trickery. 


Power Play were the 
scene of some shaky 
knee excitement 
when it finally 
arrived for review. 

Dark Reign is here 
and oh my, things 
are looking sweet. 

Good guys, 
bad guys 

The scene is set. 

Earth and its’ space- 
bound empire is a dark and des- 
perate place. The fascist bully boy 
(boo-hiss) Imperium are up against 
The Freedom Guard, the type of 
people that fight for the good 

things in life. Well in 
this case, they are 
fighting for the right 
to drink water and not 
be killed at the age of 
25. Seems a fair cause 
to fight for. 


The next level 

Dark Reign 
promised many sig- 
nificant enhance- 
ments over previous 
Real Time Combat 



games. One of the most interesting 
being units involved in greater 
interaction with the environment. 
All of the land types, from 
swamps, roads and mountains 
have an effect on particular units. 
This sees Infantry slowing down as 
they cross a mountain, but fast 
footing it over plains. Vehicles 
gaining speed down that strategi- 
cally important road, but coming to 
a crawl through that swampy area. 
In an aim for further realism each 
unit’s sight is guided by its posi- 
tion amongst everything. For 
example, an Infantry unit will see 
further while on top of a hill than a 
unit placed in a neighbouring val- 
ley. While all this is the “next level” 











Buildings can be placed almost 
anywhere 

battles when the need arises. 

Dark Reign is a very major step 
in Real Time Strategy. The title 
“C&C/War2 clone” does not do it 
justice. The designers have suc- 
ceeded in giving each unit a partic- 
ular role to play in certain environ- 
ments. There aren't too many units 
that will be relegated to the “I’ll 
never need that” category, i.e. the 
spy from Red Alert. The strong 
emphasis on subversive activities, 
as well as straight up troop vs 
troop combat does require a strong 
attention span at times, but that 
comes with the territory. This 
game is going to rock the world of 
real time combat in a big way. 

Peter Sharpe 


destruction, you can still pack up & rebuild elsewhere 


The interface is powerful & sensible. 

of real time warfare, it’s initially 
hard to get to grips with. If you are 
(like myself) a C&C fan, grouping 
together some units and sending 
them over to the far side of the 
map with a click on the radar dis- 
play is a common practice. Dark 
Reign on the other hand often 
requires unit supervision as you 
send that strikeforce into a moun- 
tainous region, where both their 
line of sight and movement can be 
adversely affected. 

Like C&C and very unlike War2, 
both sides in Dark Reign have a dif- 
ferent arsenal of goodies. The 
Freedom Guard tend to rely upon 
mobility and stealth, but in a very 
non wimpy kick ass way. You know 
where the Imperial base is, but keep- 
ing an eye on it is proving quite dif- 
ficult. How about morphing a scout 
into a tree and sending him over to 
the perimeter of the base to keep an 
eye on your enemy? Phasing is an 
equally interesting pastime, allowing 
specific units the ability to sink into 
the ground concealing their posi- 


tion. This can lead to 
leaving your base 
seemingly undefend- 
ed, as the enemy 
marches in only to 
have 15 Phasing 
Tanks rise up out of 
the ground. A sight to 
truly behold. 

Multiplayer 
balance 

Beautiful The Empire are 

more of your up 

front, hit’em hard boys, but they can 
still pull the occasional rabbit out of 
the hat (and a bloody mean one at 
that). Big Tanks, Cyborg Infantry 
and fearsome flying machines... 
these bully boys get all the mean 
stuff. One of the meanest being the 
Hostage Taker. Picture kidnapping 
enemy troops, brainwashing them 
and releasing the blighters (under 
your control) with bombs planted on 
their backs. Warning, this tactic 
could cause friends to suddenly take 
an immense dislike to you. 

Base construction 
relies upon the har- 
vesting of precious 
water, which is then 
sold for credits. Each 
building constructs 
specific types of 
units, the aim being 
to upgrade these 
facilities so as you 
can produce the real- 
ly go get’em equip- 
ment. The art of con- 
struction, Dark 


Reign-style comes in the balancing 
act you have to continually strive 
for. Do you pursue a strong infantry 
army complete with Medics and 
supported by Phasing, or do you go 
for artillery and air support? This 
will all depend on the environment 
and of course investigation of your 
enemies plans. Of course you could 
decide to upgrade all your buildings 
and go for the lot, but then, water 
can be a scarce and hard fought 
commodity. 

Busy but bearable 

With all these complex going 
ons, you could gain an impression 
of Dark Reign being a nightmare 
of mouse clicking and infinite sub 
menu after sub menu. Not so with 
features like the ability to stack 
production of units, which was 
well used in KKND. You just click 
on a production icon a set amount 
of times, and the factory will pro- 
duce that many... credits permit- 
ting. It’s a thumbs up feature that 
lets you go off and concentrate on 


Fast recon bikes meet heavy tanks 


94© 


Activision 


$89.95 


TBA 


Now 


Lots of decision 
making with large 
variety of units, 
weapons and the 
like that all mesh 
together for a com- 
pelling experience. 

In the early stages, 
it can be tough to 
pick out the land- 
scape. eg. height of 
mountains etc. 

P90, 8Mb RAM, 
WIN95 

P100, 16Mb RAM 







e 


DARK REIGN continued 



BUILD COMM3 MENU 


ORDERS |" PATHS ^ SPECIAL 


Add Wayptxntj 


Nor* frlectH 


COOL FEATURES 


lTOjT-» 


Dark Reign has numerous high- 
lights which lift it above the crowd, 
here are but a few: 

• Huge maps that can contain eight 
player LAN games with minimal 
claustrophobia. 

• The Infiltrator -Both sides have 
access to this very useful character. The idea is to sneak him into an 
enemy building and steal the plans for certain enemy units which you 
would love to build and add to your arsenal. Upon gaining the plans, you 
then have to get him back to your H.Q. safely. To make life difficult, the 
Infiltrator can get discovered during the covert activities which can blow 
the whole deal. An added advantage is the ability to morph into an enemy 
infantry unit. Makes the Red Alert spy look very lacklustre indeed. 

• The Amper -A nasty Imperial device that injects soldiers with a sub- 
stance that fully heals, but then slowly poisons. Funny how those enemy 
soldiers are looking greener by the second. 

• The Phase structure -If your strategy requires lots of phased/hidden 
units protect this building with your big guns. If it gets damaged your 
phased units could suddenly become very conspicuous. 

• Phase Runner -Freedom Guard favourite. A transport that has capacity for 
five units. It travels underground (and unseen by enemy) to any location, 
rises up and does the unload. Perfect for that friendly unannounced drop in. 

• Waypoints -Basic waypoints allows you to place markers which your 
troops follow, perfect for avoiding that “suspicious” looking mountain 
pass. An advanced option will have you setting up patrol routes and reg- 
ular paths, useful for stopping your freighters from straying into danger- 
ous territory. 

• Intelligent troops -There is a menu setting allowing troops to enter 
various states of mind including Guard mode through to “Assertive kick 
some at all costs” mode. Use this in conjunction with waypointing for 
some interesting behaviour. 

• Decoy Building -The Freedom Guard get to use these diversional 
structures which happen to be cheap and use no power. Fall over like 
wet cardboard though, use them to buy time. 

• Decoy Units -Very tricky Imperial option. Make a huge squadron of 
decoy Tachion Tanks and park them on the perimeter of your base. Your 
friend/enemy will think twice before engaging your base after eyeballing 
your assembled forces. A very likely game turning, fear inducing strategy. 

• The Imperial Temporal Gate -just like the Chronosphere in Red Alert 
except you can teleport up to five units, and living things go through 
unharmed... definite possibilities. The Infiltrator comes to mind, but 
remember you have to get him back home. 

• Veteran soldiers -Some units will gain battlefield experience and conse- 
quently acquire extra abilities. The Scout can upgrade to the Sniper which 
allows for picking off enemy infantry. The normally pacifist Mechanic can 
turn nasty and become a Saboteur, dropping installations to half their 
strength. Keep those boys in the field and they will work for you. 


Clcai A« Delete 


Setting waypoints (why didn't 
they think of that before?) 

(Top) the Temporal rift 
swallows buildings 


[EDI 


THE UNITS 


FREEDOM GUARD 



~,-v£r 

Rapid Armour 
Transport 


Spider Bike -Equipped with Rail Gun and medi- 
um armour. Fast and takes on most terrain. 

Skirmish Tank -Missile launcher, mainstay 
weapon but can’t tackle the steep slopes. 

Triple Rail Hover Tank -The Big Boy of the good 
guys armour. Heavy armour, big guns but slow 
and can’t tackle even the 
slightest of hills. 

Tank Hunter -Emits an electrical discharge for close 
encounters, good for cornered opponents. 

Phase Tank -Sneaky, can sit underground waiting to 
snare that well planned trap of yours. Lightly 
armoured, keep them in nice sized groups for that 
special “Surprise” welcome. 

Hellstorm Artillery -Long range, explosive cloud. Good armour, but needs 
support. 

Rapid Armour Transport -Carries up to five men. When 
not moving, has a camouflage ability. 

Flak Jak -Ground to air mobile missile launcher. Needs 
backup against ground attack. 

Outrider -Flyer, effective air to ground missiles. Escort 
with the Sky Bike. 

Sky Bike -Air to air attack, have a squadron handy for 
keeping the skies a safe place to fly. 

Raider -Standard grunt infantry, 
but can phase. The look on your 
friend’s face when 20 of these 
guys rise out of the mud... 

Mercenary -Beefed up infantry, does the job. 
Scout -Morph and keep morphing to get a scope 
on the battlefield. 

Field Medic/Mechanic -keep things healthy 
amongst your troops. 

Martyr -Grunt with suicide bomb attached, yes it’s going to hurt. 
Shockwave -A huge underground earthquake that spreads to your enemy 
doing damage in it’s path. Uses phase technology and very nasty indeed. 


Raider 

?:■ -\- 

V . V 



r‘ 

r ** 


ji- 



t ■** 

Scout 



Mercenary 


IMPERIUM UNITS 



Scout Tank -Not as wimpy as it sounds. Fast and 
as with all Imperial tanks, utilizes Hover-craft 
technology. 

Plasma Tank -The main 
tank of the Imperium, 
slowish but packs a punch. 

Only likes the flat terrain 
though. 

Tachion Tank -The biggest 
and baddest. Can self destruct for extra misery. 

Shredder -A large blade that slices through 
infantry, only the bad guys could use something like this. 

Invader Troop Transport -Standard grunt carrier. 

M.A.D. -Mobile air defense that shoots bladed projectiles 
at enemy flyers. Needs heavy ground support. 

Cyclone -Master of the air, has both air to air and air to 
ground attacks. Limited ordinance requires constant re- 
arming. 

Sky Fortress -Slow, floating bringer of destruction. 
Be afraid, very afraid... 

Guardian -The basic grunt of 
the bad guys. 

Bion -Cyborg killing 
machine. An army of Arnie’s, 
that’s got to be bad news. 

Exterminator -Grunt with jet pack, fly over the 
mountains that the tanks can’t cross. 






> * 

> - 


>- 


> 

Exterminator 















MULTIPLAY 




The talents behind Dark Reign 
realised that multi-player is of vital 
interest to real time combat lovers. 
After all, not many of us are still 
playing C&C or War2 against the 
computer are we? 

First item on the agenda was 
making sure no nasty linear tac- 
tics crept into the game, ala the 
dreaded Tank Rush syndrome. 
This has been achieved by mak- 
ing different units suit specific 
environments. The clever use of 
subversive units like the 
Infiltrator are also beneficial. 
Rather than the fairly bland use 
of allies seen previously, teaming 
up with another player can offer 
some interesting situations. 
Giving money to that cash 
strapped partner can help bolster 
your second front. If you are feel- 
ing in a very charitable mood, you 
can donate some of your units on 
the battlefield to your partner's 
control. Just make sure you don’t 
give him the really top notch 
gear, or maybe a backstab won't 
be too far away. All of the multi- 
player arenas are catered for. 
Modem, serial, Internet (up to 4 
players) and the mighty LAN for 
that big junk food indulging 8 



player shout fest. The need for 
transferring of information 
between machines has been kept 
to a minimum, so Internet play 
with more than two people 
should be a viable proposition. 
Looks like their won’t be too 
many lonely Dark Reign players. 


TH E ED ITOR 

The Editor is a major part of Dark 
Reign, not some tacky last minute 
add on. Having full control of 
everything from terrain height right 
through to the brush shapes used 
in contouring the land, makes this 
an exercise in art at times. The 
Editor also allows placement of 
starting units and buildings in chal- 
lenging positions. The trick here is 
to make maps that require clever 
use of units. If you exclude moun- 
tains and have a flat and featureless 
battlefield a boring tank rush could 
be the result. On the other hand 
the use of water, swamps and some 
mountains will result in scouting 
and an interesting skirmish requir- 
ing a variety of tactics and units. 
Mind you, my maps still look like 
somebody puked on the planet 
Bizzaro. Practice and playtesting 
and lots of it. 



Expert a rush of net sites with new maps, courtesy of the editor 


CUSTOM GAMING 

Maybe you crave to go that one 
further step than the game editor. 
Nestled in the Dark Reign install 
path is a folder called “Deftxt”. 
Contained within this folder are 
nine important text files. Each one 
of these files sets up the parame- 
ters for units, buildings, terrain 
basically everything. By editing 
these files you can customize near- 
ly every aspect of Dark Reign. If I 
wanted my normally ground based 


Mercenary Soldier to have flying 
ability I simply open “Unit.txt” 
scroll down the list and replace 
“Ground” with the word “Flying” 
next to the Mercenary movement 
entry line. Things can get a lot 
more complex than that, but there 
is a key to all the variables at the 
top of each text file. One important 
word of caution, always make a 
backup before changing anything 
as some of these variables do very 
screwy things. 



G. & V ADVANCE ELECTRONICS 










P.0 BOX 602, WOOLAHRA, 2025. SYDNEY. AUSTRALIA. PH: 61 2 9362 0043 E-mail: gand@tmx.com.au FAX: 61 2 9362 3270 


*► 1 * 








Here it is. The almost-perfect blend of instant 
action and gratifying realism. 


COMANCHE 3 


Beautiful cockpit design. Practical & unobtrusive. 
Full-screen mode is available too 



The Comanche*s altitude is artificially limited 


F rom the moment I first 
fired up this game, Dolby 
Surround Sound filled my 
ears. Let me tell you, I was 
impressed! Comanche 3 (C3) is a 
surprise indeed. Gone is the 
arcade game play, ridiculous 
missions and too simplistic 
flight model that we found in 
the two previous games. Instead, 
it is quite obvious that the 
design team actually did go and 
take a peek at a real Comanche, 
and they’ve obviously had some 
help from someone with a mili- 
tary mindset because the mis- 
sion briefings now make sense. 
These advances are minor com- 
pared to the overall brilliant pre- 
sentation of this game, its 3D 
graphics, surround sound and 
playability. 


Real terrain 

C3 is a DOS game that runs with- 
out a hitch in Win95. I noticed no 
degradation of frame rate in Win 
95, and this is quite an achieve- 
ment because it does not use 
DirectX drivers. The game’s graph- 
ics engine is the Novalogic Voxel 
Space 2 three dimensional imaging 
system which produces detailed 
texture mapped terrain and objects 
with depth and striking realism. 

It’s a terrific improvement on the 
previous graphics engine, and for 
my money it provides the most 
realistic low level scenery that I’ve 
seen to date in any flight simula- 
tion. Want real terrain features to 
mask behind? You’ve got them! 
Want many different types of trees 
and other vegetation... you've got 
them! Absolutely superb. 





These are all gameplay shots. Impressive huh? 




Communications is the fourth 
dimension to the modern battlefield 
and Novalogic have captured it 
beautifully in C3. “Griffin 23 you are 
cleared for departure”, a “Roger” 
from your CP/G then off you go to 
experience a fair degree of battle- 
field sound realism. Throughout the 


Another mission begins 

flight you will hear the radio chatter 
of friendly pilots, and if another air- 
craft crosses your path, you will 
hear it cross left to right. Come up 
behind the armour you are support- 
ing and hear the roar of their 
engines, and the crack and thump 
of weapons systems and artillery 


Just explore & look... 


Buddabuddabuddabudda... 


fire missions. Sound support is well 
done, but does go a bit overboard 
when you can hear the birds chirp- 
ing as you pass a tree. 


But no choice of weapons! 

Four Operations are available, 
totalling 32 missions in all. This 
enables game play in Siberia, 

Cuba, the Persian Gulf and the 
Black Sea area. Each Operation 
consists of eight missions, and 
each mission falls within the story 
line of the operation and is con- 
vincing in its task. During the 
briefing you will usually be given 
primary and secondary objectives, 
sometimes a FARP, and often you 
will find that you have a number of 
artillery Fire Missions and even a 
JSTARS allocated in support. The 
latter provides a “god like” view of 
the battlefield direct to your Threat 
Display via a data link from an 
AWACS type aircraft that can track 
and identify individual objects all 
the way to ground level. It was 
however, a bit disappointing to see 
no option to alter waypoints or 
weapons loadout. 

Mission objectives include escort- 
ing trains, destruction of communi- 
cations arrays, biochemical plants, 
oil rigs, submarine pens, patrol 
boats, and enemy air and ground 
attack assets. Often you will be 
tasked to cooperate with other 

friendly forces on a 
mission such as 
“lase” a target or sup- 
port an armoured 
thrust. Just wait until 
you call in a Fire 
Mission, “Roger 26, 
Fire Mission out” 
then feel the air 
vibrate as the shells 
strike the GPS coordi- 
nates you just “lased”. 

Gameplay over an 
IPX Network is 



exceptional because it permits up 
to nine players to act cooperatively 
on all 32 single player missions! 
What is more, you don’t have to 
buy eight more copies of the game 
to do so; all you have to do is load 
the cooperative mode for operation 
without CD (109MB) on all sta- 
tions and insert the CD in the mas- 
ter station and hey presto., you're 
all in the same virtual world. 

Well, as I said its a fun game. It’s 
far from the old Comanche, but 
nowhere near the realism of Jane’s 


real thing, particularly if you are 
using rudders, throttle and stick. 
Watch out though, there is a bug 
in the throttle stick code, nudge it 
up a bit and nothing happens, then 
wang you’re up to 120% torque 
and shooting skyward. It takes a bit 
of getting used too! 

32 missions is limited for today’s 
flight simulators, so I can feel a 
mission disk coming on. I hope 
they fix the throttle bug and pro- 
vide many more missions. 

Maj. Ian Lindgren 



The scenario design is original & compelling 


Longbow or DI’s Apache. But not 
everyone likes to fiddle with multi- 
ple MFDs while adjusting radar 
azimuths and ranges, while select- 
ing different sensors to get a lock 
on! C3 will lock on to any target 
with the tap of a key then allow you 
to destroy the target when in range. 

It’s truly amazing to see bits and 
pieces fall off targets as you hit 
them, and believe me, if you are 
too close you will be damaged by 
the debris. Hoverhold permits 
accurate NOE flying, and the 
Realistic Flight mode is close to the 






Helicopter Flight Sim 
1-9 

EA/Novalogic 
$79 95 
TBA 

Now 

Brilliant graphics, 
surround sound, 
and multiplayer 
options combine to 
make this a fun sim. 


Limited missions, 
no customisation of 
missions and no 
weapons loadout 
option are far from 
that which is 
expected in a mod- 
ern flight sim. 

P100 with 16 MB 
RAM 


P166, 32 Mb RAM, 
AWE 32 Soundcard 


PC 








© 


REDNECK 

RAMPAGE 


It was inevitable... Ves readers, here we have Funny Doom! 


I had the opportunity to review 
the preview of RR, and it 
looked like great fun. Plenty of 
humour, the good ‘ole Duke3D 
engine, lots of blood and some 
great totally unnecessary swearing 
and violence. My appetite was well 
and truly whetted, and when a full 
copy came into the office I quickly 
ripped off the shrink wrap and 
whacked the CD into the drive. 
‘This could be a biggie’, I was 
thinking to myself as I installed 
the game. Hurry up and install, 
you bastard of a CD ROM • I 
wanna play now ! 

Captive audience 

Then a most alarming incident 
took place - It’s not that I can't see 
the point of an advertisement for 
another game after the installation 
is finished, in fact it’s not a bad 
idea. However, immediately after 
the files had been copied across to 
my hard drive an ad for ‘Star Trek - 
Academy’ began. It looked quite 
pretty, so I watched it for a little 
while. However, not being a Star 
Trek fan, I quickly grew bored and 
pressed the escape key. Nothing 
happened, the ad kept running. So, 
thinking that maybe I missed the 
escape key I tried again, with the 
same result. Frantically I began hit- 
ting every key imaginable, and the 
mouse as well, with growing anger. 
The ad still ran. Thankfully it didn’t 
run for that long, but still I was 
plenty annoyed that I couldn’t 
choose whether to watch it or not. 

Anyway, casting the whole unfor- 
tunate incident from my mind, it 
was time to run the game. Maybe it 
wasn’t such a bad thing that the 
Trek ad ran before the game, 



& : 

f l V 

> . VvhLfH AMMD? k.-vs ver vr, 

1M» 6s Em a i to 


On a Friday night, this place is 
jumping 


Redneck realism. Note the detailed graphics 
capturing the “back hair that grows over the 
shoulders and down the arms” look 


'r r 


% k 


30 jMr 30 99 

3VS ver W 




Purty good Michael Jackson impression, fer a 
danged zombie, that is 


because I didn’t want to start the 
game in a bad mood so I actually did 
the unthinkable - 1 read the manual 
before I played. Yes, it’s true, and 
there goes what little credibility I 
had, but at least I can tell you what 
the story is. I promise to pray to the 
GameGod and take penance as soon 
as I’ve finished the review, ok? (3 
hours of playing Trivial Pursuit with 
my family should be plenty, I reck- 
on). So here’s the story; 


Bring on the aliens 

It's all about Leonard (pro- 
nounced ‘linnrd’ and when possi- 
ble you should spit whilst saying it 
for the full effect) and his quest to 
rescue his good friend Bubba from 
the alien invaders that have stolen 


their prize pig, 
Bessie. Just why 
the aliens chose to 
steal Linnrd’s 
porcine ‘compan- 
ion’ isn’t fully 
explained - perhaps 
it was the most intel- 
ligent lifeform in the area. It’s not 
just the pig that got took though, 
them dang basterd aleeuns took 


. 

rpsOD- 1 2 ■ SHI 2 


Stick 'em up, baa lamb, yer comin 
home with me 

that there skinny ole coot, Billy Ray 
Jeter, an’ even Sheriff Hobbes and 
you can stick a can of spam up my 
ass and call me a hamburger if 
they didn’t go ahead an clone ‘em 


too! Them aleeuns gone ahead and 
took near evryone else, and it was 
just up to me, linnrd, to save the 
whole damn town of Hickston and 
git rid of them unnatural bein’s. I 
gotta admit, I was pretty dang 
pissed off seein’ as I was related to 
most of the town, and no-one, not 
even aleeun assholes messes with 
ma family exceptin' other mem- 
bers of the family - if n yer git my 
meaning... 

Time to open up a can of 
whup-ass! 

So, armed with his trusty .454 
Casull pistol (‘it’ll blow a rabid 
dogs head clear right out of his 
ass’, says Linnrd), Linnrd sets of 
to rescue his relatives and prize 
pig. Of course, during his travels 
(or more correctly, rampages) 
there’s lot of other weapons to 
pick up just lying around the 
place in the pleasant way that 
weapons and ammo just lie 
around in these types of games. 
Next up is the double barrelled 





shotgun - which fires either one 
or two shells at a time, depending 
on how long you hold the trigger 
down. If the shotty isn’t enough 
there’s always the ranch rifle - a 
fully automatic alien waster, but 
beware, it’s got a bit of a kick to it, 
so leave your finger on the trigger 
too long and you’ll be shootin’ at 
nothing but the clouds in the sky. 
For those delicate matters though, 
a stick or two of dynamite will 
usually do the trick - be careful, 
once you’ve lit the wick make it’s 
a good idea to throw it, otherwise 
you’re going to end up splattered 


all over the walls. Throwing the 
dynamite can get a bit tirin’ after 
a while, and here’s where your 
crossbow comes in pretty durn 
handy. Stick a bit of dynamite on 
to the arrows with some duct tape, 
and you’re ready to send some 
pretty fireworks to the domes - 
real pretty when they go off inside 
their guts. As if that ‘aint enough 
there’s always the rip saw, it 
works mighty fine up dose, and 
it’s perfect for long distance muti- 
lation too. Shoot off a few in close 
quarters and watch them rebound 
off the walls - mighty good fun. 

It’s not just the donies that you 
gotta deal with though, once you get 
a bit closer to their ship you gotta 
deal with the aliens themselves. 

And they’ve got some nasty mothers 


of weapons too, like 
the alien guards with 
guns fixed on their 
arms. Luckily 
enough, once you’ve 
killed em dead- 
er’n'elvis you can rip 
off their arms and 
use the gun yerself. 

Sure you’ve gotta pull 
on the aliens tendon 
to fire, but it packs 
one hell of a punch! 

Then there’s them 
alien wimmen-folk, they’re mighty 
pretty but their breasts are more 
than just pretty to 
look at - they shoot an 
awful lotta bullets 
awful fast. The key is 
to kill em somehow 
and then rip their 
breasts off and wear 
em yerself. Don’t 
make you look very 
manly, but they come 
in pretty darn handy 
when you need lotsa 
bullets real fast. Last 
of yer opposition is 
them alien turd min- 
ions. Seems every time one a’ them 
aliens does a crap, 
their sheet gets up 
and comes to get yer. 

They jump about all 
over the place too, 
damn hard to get a 
bead on em and it 
don’t sound too nice 
when you blow ‘em 
up neither - sorta like 
what it sounds like 
when you eat too 
much of that green 
pepper chili, if n you 
know what I mean... 

Speaking of food, yer gonna get a 
taste of some buckshot from the 
donies from time to time, so you 
might wanna chew on some deep 
fried pork balls or take a few chugs 
of some of the neces- 
sities in life; beer and 
whiskey. They make 
you fell a damnsite 
better, but you better 
be careful here too - 
taking a bit too much 
whiskey on an empty 
stomach can have 
some unpleasant side 
effects, like stumbling 
around and falling 
over. 


The sensible bit 

All up, it’s not quite as good as I 
had at first hoped, but it’s still a 
very decent game. Based on the 
Duke3D engine, the graphics do 
look more than a little dated, and 
though it will work with a mouse 
the game really doesn’t like it 
much at all. The best thing about 
the game is the humour, 
undoubtably. Truckloads of inbred 
one liners, and plenty of disgusting 
cartoon violence too. The pity of it 
is that even the humour can get a 
bit annoying at times - sheer repe- 
tition can get to you after a while, 
no matter how funny the content 
is. Mostly though, it’s how dated 


the engine looks - I found it really 
hard to get into the feel of the 
game because of the look, and 
there’s not really much more to 
say. The manual is funny, the 
game is funny for a while, but even 
though there is a different feel to 
the game, I couldn’t escape the 
feeling that I'd done this kind of 
thing before (which I had). Having 
said that, I did have a damn fine 
time playing, and I will be going 
back for some more - multiplayer 
will be very cool indeed. I just 
don’t think it’ll be on my hard 
drive in a couple of months time, 
that’s all. 

Gareth Jones 



Taking out the pickup and trailer home 







Texas buzz-saw massacre 



www.interplay.com/red- 
neck/index.html for the 
‘cuss pack’ which will add 
some even more offensive 
speech. Cool! 




Category 

Inbred Duke3d done 

Players 

1-6 

Publisher 

Interplay/EA 

Price 

$89-95 

Rating 

MA15+ 

Available 

Now 

For 

Rootin’, tootin’, 


shootin’ good time! 
Good variety of 
weaponry, well 
developed large 
and detailed levels. 
Drinking is encour- 
aged, as is shooting 
the livestock. 


Game engine looks 
dated, and there’s 
nothing really all 
that new. Maybe 
not quite enough 
variety in the mon- 
sters. 


P90, 16MB RAM, 2X 
CD. 

P133, 32MB RAM 















BLOOD 



B lood’s two main selling 

points are, I suppose, that it 
has licensed 3D Realms' 
Build engine (which, I'm sure you 
recall, was used to design Duke 
Nukem 3D) and that it is a revolt* 
ingly and, by turns, hilariously 
bloodthirsty game. 

But are these really selling 
points? Let's take a look a the first 
one - the Build engine. Sure, you’ll 
almost certainly see “Created with 
the Duke Nukem 3D Build 
engine!” or something similar in a 
prominent position on the box. I’m 
sure, too, that most people will 
think, “Yeah, Duke was a cool 
game, so this Blood must be worth 
checking out”. I know I did, but 
then I thought about it some more. 
And then played the game, of 
course. 

Competent functional 

Duke was released over a year 



ago (longer still if you count the 
shareware version) and, as we're all 
well aware, a year is an eternity in 
gaming. No matter how great it 
was, Duke is now an OLD game. 
Since then Bethesda have given us 
the XnGine-powered Terminator 
games, id have the superior Quake, 
Shiny have MDK, there’s the bril- 
liant shareware Chasm, and we’ve 
been seeing pics of Unreal, Prey 
and Jedi Knights for months now. 
Yet Monolith (the creators) expect 
us to be excited about Blood using 
Duke’s Build engine. They’re kid- 
ding, right? Build, now, is a com- 
petent, functional 3D engine - it’s 
nothing special at all. By way of 
hammering this point home, I’ve 
just been informed that Duke 
Nukem Forever will be using the 
Quake engine. 

Blood does feel very Duke 
Nukemey. Because of this, we find 
that the “mouse look” function 


does not work all that well. As we 
noted in our preview in May, play- 
ing this way significantly slows the 
game down. You might see this as 
negating the distinct advantage 
mouse-players have over keyboard 
or joystick users in multiplay, but 
even then I’m sure you would 


agree that it’s a very odd way to go 
about doing that. What about when 
you want to play the solo game? 
You're stuck with either an inaccu- 
rate control or a slow control - it’s a 
tough choice. 

The other failing of the Build 
engine is that it's only pseudo-3D. 



Taking out a rather large spider with your trusty tommy gun 










e 



Hairspray + lighter = murder + mayhem 


Monsters and objects are 2D, of 
course, but the buildings and gen- 
eral architecture aren’t true 3D 
either. Everything appears to warp 
or skew when you look up and 
down, meaning that it’s impossible 
to shoot things below or above 
even though it looks as if you 
should be able to. 

Plenty of interaction 

Monolith, however, have clearly 
learnt that one of the joys of Duke 
was the tremendous amount of 
things to do on each level. As such, 
Blood has plenty of interaction - 
giant holes can be blown in certain 
walls, there a hidden panels galore, 
there are eleven “secrets” on the 
first level alone. Particularly amus- 
ing is the sink full of blood at 
which you can say “Out! Out! 



Quite pretty 2 1/2D scenery 


E 


Plus 


http://www.lith.com/hom 

e.asp 







Damn spot!” in your hammiest 
Shakespeare meets B-Grade horror 
film voice. 

There’s nothing astounding 
about the graphics. They’re pretty 
on the higher resolutions (even 
320x400 looks good and moves 
swiftly), the themes of graveyards, 
crypts, churches, spooky man- 
sions, etc, are novel, and the level 
design is often clever (though 
equally often depressingly formu- 
laic), yet at all times there's the 
unshakeable feeling that this game 
really is a year old. 

So what about the second selling 
point - violence. Violence sells, it’s 
a proven fact. And bloody violence 
sells bloody well. But I don’t 
believe violence can sell a game 
on its own. There does need to be 
a quality game lurk- 
ing beneath all the 
decaying flesh and 
mutilated limbs. For 
example, Quake 
sold and Witchaven 
did not. Your average 

Spurting blood 

Violence is what ever-so-nearly 
saves Blood. 1 reckon it is easily the 
most disgusting game I have ever 
played. You begin the game armed 
solely with a pitchfork. A zombie 
rises from its grave and lurches 
remarkably quickly in your direc- 
tion. When it gets close enough 
you thrust your farming imple- 
ment into its midriff and watch it 
topple over backwards, blood spurt- 
ing from the wounds. After a cou- 
ple of seconds it rises again, so you 
repeat your attack, cleaving the 
creature’s head from its undead 
shoulders. Dead for good this time, 



Ye olde faithful shotgun. Not much to shoot here though 



it falls to the ground and a foun- 
tain of blood sprays all over the 
surrounding muddy dirt. You walk 
forward a few steps and kick the 
head across the graveyard just to 
make sure of your kill. Apparently, 
in a multiplayer game, you should 
be able to organise a game of foot- 
ball - with a head such as this one 
as the ball. 

Killing the machine gun wielding 
monks with the flare gun causes 
them to burst into flames, run 
around screaming in agony for a 
while, before (quite literally this 
time) bursting into 
hundreds of tiny 
pieces of well-cooked 
flesh. The TNT 
results in some deli- 
cious explosions and 
often blood-soaked 
rooms. And the 
voodoo doll? A-ha-ha-ha! It's a 
beauty. 

Yet the novelty wears off after a 
day or two, and ultimately what I 
wanted was a damn good game to 
get my teeth stuck into. 
Unfortunately, Blood doesn’t deliv- 
er. They haven’t quite gone far 
enough, so I feel like I’ve seen it all 
before. It feels antiquated. 

I realise that Blood isn’t a bad 
game. It is, in fact, pretty good and 
can be severely entertaining. But 
there are just so many better 
games out there already and with 
plenty more still to come, it’s diffi- 
cult to really recommend this as an 


tesla gun 


essential purchase. If Blood had 
been released back when we start- 
ed to hear about it, with the 
promise of gratuity upon gratuity, 
needless violence in excess vol- 
umes, it might have gone down as 
a classic 3D shoot 'em up. It was- 
n’t, so it isn’t. 

David Wildgoose 


Category 

Players 

Publisher 

Price 

Rating 

Available 


Action 
1-8 

GT/Roadshow 
$89 95 
M15 
Now 


low 



Original weapons. 
Plenty of Duke-style 
interaction and 
humour. Not for the 
faint-hearted. 

Little more than a 
second-rate Doom 
clone with loads of 
gore. Feels old. 

P75, 16Mb RAM, 
4xCD 

P166+, A fast video 
card 




iM PERI UM GALACTICA 



Wow. A new game concept. Here we have the old 
reliable resource management, empire building, 
scientific advancement and diplomacy sci-fi 
strategy game - set in an Adventure game way! 


Ice worlds have only limited room 
for development 


researched before they can be 
used. These structures perform 
the usual functions of feeding, 
housing and protecting your 
colonies inhabitants and they need 
power to work properly. Power sta- 


A strategy game where you spend the whole time In the command 
room of a spaceship 


t ust when you thought the uni- 
I verse had been conquered 
I more times than any sane per- 
ron could stand “who’s invading 
this week Gladys?” “Oooh, I think 
it’s the Gonads, Marge. I hear 
they’re very efficient breeders dear. 
Very efficient.” GT Interactive 
whips out a surprise package, a 
new space strategy epic to rival the 
best, or just another spreadsheet 
disguised as a game? 


The virtual starship can be explored in a very 
limited ist person view 


Progress through promotion 

Imperium Galactica is an unusu- 
al combination of classic Space 
Opera, FMV adventure and mis- 
sion based strategy game. The 
game starts out allowing you 
access to only a few of its manage- 
ment screens, limiting the amount 
of control you have over the 
resources at your disposal. No 
building, researching or invading 
is allowed! In this stage of the 
game you are given missions to 
complete and if you 
do well a promotion 
will follow, giving you 
more control over 
your forces and your 
destiny. Eventually 
you are given full con- 
trol of the war effort 
(at Grand Admiral 
rank) allowing you to 
use diplomacy and 
force of arms to 
rebuild the Human 


empire. Planetary 


The artists have clearly enjoyed 
themselves 

tions are important, not only 
because they help with the afore- 
mentioned problem, but because 
they also form the focal point of 
nearly all assaults on your 
colonies. Ground-based combat 
takes place when you or your ene- 
mies attack a planet and defeat its’ 
defence installations. You can 
group and assign units and order 
them around just as you would in 
Red Alert, there are also defensive 
installations such as Barracks and 
Fortresses to help the defenders 
out. Ground battles never take on 
the grand strategic form of a true 


Real-time ground combat 

There are a wide variety of build- 
ing types in Imperium, of course 
some of them need to be 


and space action in Imperium are 
represented equally, in other words 
there is a lot more emphasis on 
ground based combat than there is 
in most other games of this type. 
Planetary action takes place on ter- 
rain maps which vary depending 
on the type of world, ice, desert etc. 
They are a bit small though and 
considering the quality of the real- 
time combat engine used in the 
game it seems a waste to have to 
slug it out in such a confined area. 






The gameplay is constantly peppered with stunning cut scenes to compliment the storyline 



Ready for ground combat 


real-time strategy game though 
because of the small size of the 
terrain map (basically one screen, 
at least there’s no need to scroll!). 
Ground combat is much more 
important than space shenanigans 
early in the game as it is much 
easier to defend a planet on the 


surface when the 
alien fleets are far 
superior. In fact it’s 
wise not to build any 
planetary defences, 
as they just waste 
time and 

money build lots 

of barracks and 
tanks instead. 

Research for fun 
and profit 

As is usual with 
these sorts of games your technol- 
ogy gradually increases with time 
and study (well, you have to 
achieve the rank of Commander 
before you can do any research, 
but it builds after that!). The level 
of research you can do depends on 
the number of particular buildings 


you have at your disposal. There 
are A. I. buildings, Civil 
Engineering, Mechanical, 
Computer etc. but only one can be 
built per planet. What this means 
is that, to keep your tech, momen- 
tum going, you have to keep con- 
quering or colonising new planets 
or suffer from falling too far 
behind your enemies. Now what 
do you do with technology besides 
build bigger and better plasma 
blaster thingies? And what better 
use for a plasma blaster thingy 
than to blast an alien’s spaceship 
to bits and tattoo your name on 
his butt. 

Imperium Galactica handles 
space combat in a similar way to 
the original MOO with a top 
down 2D display. This does get 
rather annoying though when 
your fleet gets tangled up with 
itself trying to obey your orders. 
Making ships manoeuvre around 
each other in two dimensions is 
stupid when, in reality, they 
would also be able to go above or 
below each other. There is anoth- 
er dumb limitation, your ships 
cannot fire and move at the same 
time! Therefore it’s far better to 
let your opponent come to you 
and face a barrage of fire from 
your fleet than to charge at them, 
as you’ll get creamed. This takes 
a bit of the fun out of the space 
combat side of things, for me 
anyway. Ironically though, the 
main problem with Imperium is 
also one of its’ most interesting 
features! Having a story to go 







http://www.gtinteractive.c 

om/minisite/ig/ 



along with the conquest is fine, 
but the game plays exactly the 
same way every time, exactly the 
same! Therefore you have to 
accept this fact if you’re going to 
enjoy the game but, compared 
with the fantastic replayability of 
MOO2, it may be over too early 
for some of you. 

George Soropos 


Category 

Players 

Publisher 

Price 

Rating 

Available 


Space Strategy 
1 

GT I Interactive 

$ 89.95 

TBA 

Now 






Innovative game- 
play which will cap- 
ture the interest of 
even jaded space 
strategy veterans. 

Ground maps are 
too small for real 
strategic warfare, 
lack of replayability 
may be a problem 
for some. 


486 DX100, 8Mb 
RAM, DOS 5.0, 4X 
CD 



P100, 8X CD 











STAR COMMAND 
REVOLUTION 


If you’re a C&C fan, like space games and have been lusting after a game 


that combines the best of both, your wait is over. 





Units look nice, but there isn*t enough variety. Still, the advanced research options compensate 


* 5URP LDCRTIDNS 
[WITH FRIENDLY SHIP 

;dr station 


S tar Command Revolution is, 
to be utterly and deliberately 
unimaginative, a ‘revolution’ 
in the real-time strategic conquest 
gaming market. Well, to be honest, 
it's not that amazingly spectacular 
but it is a C&C clone and it is set 



Space, yet another frontier 


in space. And in my book, that 
must be good. 

As you'd expect SCR revolves 
around real time resource produc- 
tion, management and unit move- 
ment. Oh, and there’s the fun 
invade-and-massacre-your-neigh- 
bour routine bit as well, but initial- 
ly you have to put that aside and 
concentrate on building up a base 
of operations. You build buildings, 
buildings build ships and ships kill 
things. Nice and simple. 

You can build various classes of 
ships, droids and immobile 
defences. Unlike C&C though, the 
damage your units inflict can affect 
a variety of systems on enemy 


units such as their engines (thus 
reducing their speed), their tech- 
nology (thus reducing their dam- 
age and rate of fire) and so on. You 
can also build units to repair these 
same areas for your own units. All 
up this means conflict in SCR 
takes on a more thoughtful twist 
with extra planning involved when 
it comes to production and com- 
bat. If you’re not into all that think- 
ing stuff, you might find SCR a lit- 
tle too complex. 

More is good 

The game boasts a rather large 
64 different controllable unit types, 
but these are divided between the 


four races of the Terrans, the 
Triumverites, the Nomads and the 
Computrons and, more important- 
ly, a large portion of the ‘unit’ 
types are structures. When it 
comes down to warring with 
another player, SCR is thankfully 
very much like C&C in the number 
and diversity of units in command. 

As you would expect each race 
has different abilities. Generally 
races either concentrate on doing 
shield or technology damage with a 
few extra units dedicated to target- 
ing other areas such as ‘control’ 
(meaning, if an enemy craft has its 
control reduced to o it becomes 
captured). Each race also has 











The level of detail in SCR is quite impressive, pity the viewing area soaks up so much screen real estate. 



Minerals aplenty! Harvesting, however, is a slow and dangerous process. 


unique ships that can’t be found 
elsewhere, such as huge teleport- 
ing gun platforms, this is always a 
fun toy! Think of it like an obelisk 
which you can teleport anywhere 
you see (after saving energy for a 


while). Quite a surprise to dump 
one in your enemies base. 

There are a few neat twists with 
SCR mothership. Think of it as a 
roving MCV — it moves around 
and builds structures, but it also 
harvests minerals for production. 
It’s also the only one you get, lose 
it and you can build no more. Fear 
not for motherships, while not 
equipped with any weaponry, are 
as tough as a rhino’s rear and take 
a heck of a beating before giving 
up their jewels of stored minerals. 

Artificial intelligence 

Units can leam and earn experi- 
ence. Stick 'em next to a university 
structure and after a while they’ll 
increase in ability up to a limit. 
Send them out to Fight and if they 
survive they can increase beyond 



this limit and even earn special 
abilities. Neat. Techs aren’t limited 
to what your race can build either, 
if you leave your mothership next 
to a university long enough it’ll 
start learning the techs of one 
other race in the universe. Imagine 
playing the Russians and the 
English at the same time in Red 
Alert, being able to build structures 
and units from each. Neat again. 

You can jump into single player 
games, multiplayer games over a 
network and the Internet and take 
part in co-op or deathmatch cam- 
paigns — a game doesn’t have to 
be completed in one sitting, you 
can play and compete over a num- 
ber of ‘maps’. More neatness. 

And it’s even in high-res 
640x480! What more could you 
ask for? 

However SCR isn’t all lollies and 
neatness. For all of these features 
it has to be said that there’s a slight 
dose of information overload in 
SCR, both in the form of colourful 
highly detailed graphics and in the 
gameplay. 

The attention to detail on the 
unit types and surrounding galaxy 
seems to water down the easily dis- 
cemable boundaries between the 
different unit types, especially in 
the heat of battle. It’s a minor 
winge, but it is something you pick 
up. Similarly the gameplay is a lit- 
tle too complex than it needs to be. 
It’s nice to be able to build units to 
target engines or technology and 
it’s quite cool to build up groups of 



task-oriented units, but when the 
heat of battle strikes and you’re 
desperately pumping out new units 
all this goes out the window and 
you just build default grunts to get 
the job done. In other words, SCR 
offers the opportunity for strategic 
gameplay right from the steps of 
your production facility but it’s 
unlikely you’ll ever delve deep into 
this foray and instead just build 
those units you need to do some 
sheer pounding damage. 

Overall it’s definitely a neat 
game. If the C&C genre hasn’t 
worn off you yet and you’re look- 
ing for new territories to conquer, 
look to the stars with SCR. 

Ashton Mills 


80 © 


Category 

Players 

Publisher 

Price 

Rating 

Available 




Against 



Real time strategy 
1-4 

GT Interactive 

$TBA 

G 

Now 

It’s a shameless 
attempt at C81C in 
space. And it does it 
rather well. Plenty of 
diversity, unit types 
and playability as 
well as a few nice 
twists to your aver- 
age real-time strate- 
gy game. 

A little too much 
attention to detail, 
viewing area isn’t 
quite as large as 
you’d hope. It may be 
a C81C clone, but 
don’t expect the 
same gameplay. SCR 
is quite different in 
respect to its deeper 
strategy involvement. 

P60, 16Mb RAM, 
2 xCD, DOS 5+ 

P90, 4XCD, strategi- 
cally inclined friends 

















Very pretty, great mission design and enough to keep you at it for ages. 


M aybe it’s some sort of 
subliminal hold over us 
by George Lucas, or more 
probably, it’s that blasting away in 
the 3D realm of deep space is a 
very satisfying pasttime. Whatever 
the reason, the X-Wing and Wing 
Commander series have become 
an institution on hard drives 
around the globe. Moments such 
as facing off against an Imperial 
Star Destroyer in your battered old 
X-Wing, whilst dodging Tie 
Interceptors on your six... defini- 
tion of near perfect gaming. With 
the Wing Commander series still a 
favourite with Space Opera fans, 
and X-Wing Vs Tie Fighter set to 
take over our lives, it’s easy to over- 
look a new entry into the arena 
such as Darklight Conflict. 

The Last Starfighter 

Unlike the elaborate story in 
Wing Commander, Darklight 
Conflict takes a more simple 
premise. Showing off your dog- 
fighting skills as a US Naval Pilot, 
you gain the attention of the 
Reptons. A rather desperate race of 
aliens who are losing the war with 



their arch enemies, the Ovons. 
Before you can say, “Where’s 
Scully and Mulder when I need 
them” you are whisked away as the 
latest recruit in their space fighter 
squadron. The only reminder of a 
plot within the game is some text 
in between missions, telling you 
how the war is proceeding. The 
lack of glitzy cutscenes is made up 
for by the large amount of mis- 
sions (Fifty!) on offer. 

Jumping into the cockpit for the 
first time immediately raises a 
smile, the graphics are superb in 
every respect. Light-sourcing from 
weapons, explosions and nearby 
stars presents everything in an 
eerie glow that really gives 


Darklight Conflict a uniquely sur- 
real style. The spacecraft are all 
decked out in sleek metallic textur- 
ing, giving an ominous look whilst 
they glide through space. Special 
effects such as the brilliant explo- 
sions and passing through Warp 
gates will have you in “Computer 
show-off’ mode to all your mates. 
Thankfully performance is very 
acceptable on a Pi33, with only 
occasional slowdown in some areas 
like asteroid fields. Those with 
lower spec Pentiums can adjust the 
detail down, and there is a VGA 
mode for the brave amongst you. I 
say brave as the VGA mode on 
offer here looks tacky and is to be 
avoided if possible. 


High speed ramming 

The cynical, hard edged, jaded 
gamer in me was sure some- 
thing would be horribly wrong 
once the dogfighting occurred. 
All show no go, we’ve all been 
there before. Launching into the 
training missions introduced all 
the weapon types and things 



Bloody pretty. 


PCIRiraaifFlkE/ 










89 © 


Space Shooter 
1-6 

Electronic Arts 
$89 95 
G 

Now 


Great atmosphere 
due to tremendous 
graphics and sound 
effects to match. 
Space combat that 
aims for excitement 
and delivers. 




Some of the mis- 
sions are a chore. 
Simplified damage 
and control model 
could lead to Tie 
Fighter withdrawal. 

P60 (VGA Graphics), 
16Mb RAM, DOS 
6.22, 

P133 (SVGA 
Graphics Mmmm), 
16Mb RAM, sturdy 
joystick 


Plus 


www.ea.com - 

Big company, big Webpage. 


volley of shots and 
then cutting power 
and pulling away. 
You’ll quickly devel 
op various dog 
fighting tactics and 
each mission will 


were looking quite promising. 
Tractor Beams, differing missile 
types and a supermarket of beam 
weapons. Once past the training 
scenarios the war begins, and 
the cynical bastard in me was 


Ovon's nasty habit of ramming 
your ship at high speeds, which 
calls for the mastering of high 
turns and speed adjustments 
early on in your campaign. 

Space is rarely a dull place in 


Good object light-sourcing has been acheived without over-taxing the 3D engine 


Pretty explosions are an essential thing... 


require a different 
approach. No repet- 
itive blundering full 
speed at the enemy 
here, all guns blaz- 
ing (well only some- 
times). One initial 
frustration is the 


quickly silenced. Smooth respon- 
sive controls and flight dynamics 
that remind heavily of Tie 
Fighter (in other words excel- 
lent) all add up to the feeling of 
“being there". Spotting enemy 
ships on radar can have you fly- 
ing in from various angles into 
enemy squadrons, unleashing a 


Darklight Conflict. The missions 
have you undertaking various 
tasks from intercepting enemy 
command ships, mining asteroid 
fields and the highly recommend- 
ed “Comet Chase”. The Ovons 
have cleverly attached engines to 
some rogue comets and are guid- 
ing them towards your command 
ship. You must track them down, 
intercept and then destroy the 
guidance units on each one... all 
while avoiding the tail of the 
comet. It looks bril- 
liant and is one of 
the most enjoyable 
missions I’ve played 
in a space sim. On 
a darker note (enter 
the jaded gamer) 
some of the mis- 
sions are best 
described as annoy- 


2 CDs for multiplay 

The joy of gaming in the 90's is 
multi-player and Darklight Conflict 
gets halfway there. Network play for 
up to six space cowboys is support- 
ed but unusually for some reason 
modem play is absent. This will 
make the game a solo experience 
for most people. EA have stated that 
a modem patch is on the way, so we 
modem devotees will just have to be 
patient. At least EA included two 
CD-ROM’s so as to warm us to the 


Don't forget the asteroid field 


V • 

> 

rmiiui sj 

VWT 

■ — 

@ '* •.* 



Wk" 




The H.U.D goes for style points over practicality 


ing. Protecting 
cargo ships that are 
made of a new 
metal similar in 
strength to wet 
cardboard, and 
blown up by the 
enemy just looking 
at them will bring 
back memories of 
those overly difficult missions 
from X-Wing. The real clunker 
missions involve you ditching 
your highly mobile ship and tak- 
ing control of a stationary turret 
that has limited turning ability. 
These missions are a frustrating 
duckshoot, that would have been 
better left out of the game. Apart 
from these irritations, the mis- 
sions are on the whole good stuff. 


idea of combating with a friend. 

While Darklight Conflict is a lot 
of fun to play, it misses out on tak- 
ing Tie Fighter’s crown. This is not 
due to any gameplay faults, more 
because it lacks the depth of 
Lucasart’s masterpiece. Shields 
operation is a simplistic button 
press and there is minimal 
onboard power management. The 
locking of targets is all automatic 
with no control of radar target 
selection. Sure it’s more of an 
arcade experience than sim, but it 
excels in adrenaline rushing. If you 
evenly remotely like space combat, 
Darklight Conflict is an extremely 
worthy purchase. 

Peter Sharpe 


PCttaofFD^ 














WIPEOUT 2097 



From PlayStation to PC comes Wipeout 2097. 3D 
support too! So why all the long faces? 


The starting grid on the Brazilian 
jungle/Inca temple track. 


nel, flame and the inertial impact 
that is hitting a stationery object at 
high speeds. 

Wipeout 2097 tracks are 
designed to be very fast, yet have 
serious corners to contend with - 
some almost at right angles and 
there are many U bends. Scattered 
outside of every corner are boost- 
ers, when you pass over them they 
speed you up significantly. 

Comers need to be tackled with 


Wipeout 2097’s pit stops are 
probably the most impressive 
you’ll ever see. 



Rendition 

All effects as good as the 
3Dfx. Transparency, bilin- 
ear filtering etc. But, con- 
siderably slower. It jerks in 
places it shouldn’t 


3Dfx 

Full use of bilinear filter- 
ing, transparency (don’t 
forget to turn up the 
gamma though!) and awe- 
some speed, though still 
not as fast as the 
Playstation. Actually, Pod 
with native 3Dfx code is a 
better choice. 


W ipeout 2097 is the latest 
title from Psygnosis. A 
very pedantic bunch, 
these Super Human, been around 
since Noah was a boy, program- 
ming God geniuses have high ideals 
and visions for their software which 
means that they tend to only write 
for the best platform. Which until 
recently was the Sony Playstation, 
where Wipeout 2097 was a big hit 
and an amazing experience that 
pushed the console to its’ limits. 

Taking these high ideals into 
consideration, Wipeout 2097 for 
the PC has been programmed 
using the Direct 3D set of APIs to 


CHECH 

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The craft’s exhaust are nice, but aren’t a patch on 
the Playstation's vapour trails. 


ensure that 3D accelerators will all 
be able to do their stuff and bring 
justice to the game. Wipeout 2097 
is one of the most visually 
enhanced games around and needs 
some _serious_ hardware to play it. 
If you’ve got it, smile smugly now! 

Weapons and power-ups 

Wipeout 2097 is essentially a rac- 
ing game. A futuristic racing game at 
that. You’re a pilot/driver (whatever) 
of the latest human invention, being 
anti gravity vehicles of which you can 
choose from 4 different designs, each 
with their own special characteristics. 
Just like any other racing game, you 
bolt around a series of 
tracks in order to make 
first place. And in this 
one, being a computer 
game, you can pick up 
a series of weapons 
with which to blast 
your opponents with. 
Initially weapon 
impacts just slow the 
other person down. But 
If you hit them enough 
times, you’ll kill them 
in a frenzy of shrap- 


absolute precision, and although 
this maybe frustrating to some or 
even many, mastering the skill is 
very rewarding. It is actually much 
easier with an analogue joystick, 


CHeCH 

POS 

□=V=l.o 

llorl2 


wu 



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f r t W(,v 


The in-car view can be vomit- 
inducing. 


and hitting speed-up after speed-up 
from successfully cornering gives a 
delightful sense of achievement 
with a hit of adrenaline as well. 

Also along the tracks are the men- 
tioned weapon power-ups. Passing 
over the relevant symbol allows you 
to pick up guided missiles, mines, 
a temporary shield (that doesn’t 
stop you from slowing down when 
you hit a wall), electro blasts, 
autopilot and the awesome shock- 
wave that lifts the track up ahead 
causing all sorts of destructive may- 
hem to competitors in front. 










PC vs. Consoles... Again. 

So far Wipeout 2097 seems like 
a pretty damned good game if 
you've got the hardware, and it is. 
BUT, it’s time to bitch at 
Psygnosis. Yes, this _IS_ PC 
PowerPlay, but a lot of us have 
consoles as well and it’s only right 


to compare. The first thing, though 
only a nitpick, is that the opening 
video is ghastly compared to the 
Playstation one. Utilising the 
absolutely hated interlaced tech- 
nique, the colour is all washed out 
and not worth watching. The 
Playstation one however, you could 
watch endlessly. The 
CD tracks offered on 
the Playstation ver- 
sion are also differ- 
ent to the PC. Where 
the Playstation got all 
the glitzy artists such 
as Future Sound of 
London, Chemical 
Bros. And Prodigy. 
The PC version has 
only the tracks from 
Psygnosis’s in-house 
Music Studio Cold 


Storage. This is a good thing 
though, Messij xtnd. is perfect for 
ultra high speed tracks and 
besides, Tim Wright is damn good. 

On the graphical side though, 
the PC version of Wipeout 2097 
is in 640 x 480. The difference is 
amazing. The vehicles are much 
more defined and detailed, and 
the track just infinitely sexier than 
on the Playstation. To counter 
that though (maybe after some 
kind of conspiratorial deal with 
Sony) is that the vehicles don’t 
have the long and sexy jet exhaust 
like on the Playstation. It may 
seem like a little thing, but zoom- 
ing through a tunnel on the 
Playstation, with a long sleek jet 
stream ahead of you and someone 
passing from the side was fantas- 
tic. All we get on the PC version is 
a pathetic little transparent texture 
in the form of a blue gleam. 

Now Psygnosis, don’t think for a 
second you can tell us that it can’t 
be done. Ubisoft’s Pod features 
brilliantly transparent gourauded 
streams just like in Wipeout 2097 
on the Playstation. If it’s a limita- 
tion of Direct 3D, then make spe- 
cialised versions. Ok, a bit harsh, 
but you did for Fi! It is a signifi- 
cant let down. Where the 
Playstation version of Wipeout 


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— 

But where the hell is the battleship? 



A missile hit on any game is an immensely satisfying experience, especially when it looks like this. 



2097 was bright with deep rich 
colours in the tunnel. On the PC 
everything seems dull and washed 
out. Initially on the 3Dfx it was like 
driving through volcanic ash, but 
adjusting the gamma high enough 
to give you a tan helped a lot. 

Overall, Wipeout 2097 is an 
excellent game. If you don’t have a 
Sony Playstation, and couldn’t care 
less about them, yet DO have a 3D 
accelerator then get Wipeout 2097. 
If you do have a Playstation 
though, don’t get the PC version, 
it’s not as good. 

Jere Lawrence 




Category 

Players 

Publisher 

Price 

Rating 


3D racing sim 
1 

Psygnosis 

$TBA 

G 


Available 



Now 

Fun fast gameplay. 
The speed and diffi- 
culty makes it very 
addictive. 

Tracks are all 
delightfully different 
with excellent 
themes. Little extras 
such as cameras 
and moving mono- 
rails create a nice 
atmosphere. 



This would have 
been a 90%+ score, 
but the power of 3D 
accelerators has 
been overlooked. 
For a toy to have 
better effects con- 
sidering the power 
of our machines is a 
slap in our faces! 


486/DX66, 8 Mb 
RAM, 2 x CD 


, 8Mb RAM, 4 X 









© 



CALLAHAN’S 

CROSSTIME 

SALOON 


Save the universe while simultaneously enjoying a 
beer at the pub - we can manage that... 


m 






» 




A 

/ Hr »■ | 


_ia ♦ 




F or most of us, going down to 
the local Pub would not be 
considered an event of cos- 
mic significance. A few games of 
pool, some stale peanuts and a few 
friendly beverages with your mates 
seems to be the order of the day. 
Of course the Vampires, aliens, 
time travellers and Gods of our 
reality also want a place to unwind 
and have a friendly beer. Thus we 
have Callahan’s Crosstime Saloon, 
a definite mix of Universal quirki- 
ness plus some friendly atmos- 
phere all rolled into a place that is 
one of the more interesting set- 
tings for an adventure game. Not 
that all the patrons of Callahans 
originate from the Outer Realms, 


E 


Plus 


www.legendent.com 

Callahans is based on a 
series of books written by 
Spider Robinson. Check out 
the Newsgroup alt.calla- 
hans to join the cult follow- 
ing of these series of sto- 
ries. They seem a friendly 
bunch of people. 




Proper puzzles 

While having a setting that is the 
Twilight Zone meets Cheers, 
Callahans uses a more familiar 
adventure game format. The main 
viewing area has you chatting with 
characters, moving inventory items 




Every character has a rich story 

and that’s where you come in. Jake 
Stonebender, folk Singer and gen- 
eral salt of the earth sort of guy. 
The tragic loss of your family in an 
accident left you with a gaping hole 
in your life. Consequently your 
friend Doc Webster introduced you 
to Callahans, as it seems to be a 
place for gaining some wider per- 
spectives on the experiences of life. 
While everybody comes from dif- 
ferent walks of life, dimensions 
and even states of death, the one 
unwritten rule in this pub revolves 
around everyone just getting on 
well. Of course, if the universe is 
about to be foreclosed on by the 
Gods, it seems inevitable that an 
average guy like yourself in a very 
non-average place like Callahans is 
going to get involved. 


around and gener- 
ally mouse clicking 
in the usual adven- 
ture tradition. All of the locations, 
whilst being cartoony in style, are 
well drawn and generally pleasing 
to the eye. One welcome break 
with gaming tradition is the addi- 
tion of quality voice acting for the 
main characters. Too many times 
in the past have adventure games 
atmosphere been broken by the 
game company’s accountant doing 
the voice over work. While all look- 
ing nice and dandy Callahan’s 
strongpoint is not in any new 
“pushing of the envelope” in 
adventure game for- 
mat or technology. 

Original Characters 
and a great atmos- 
phere consisting of 
comedy mixed in 
with cosmic signifi- 
cance is the order of 
the day here. 

Whilst hanging 
out in a bar filled 
with cosmic beer 
drinkers is probably 

a past time in itself, 

. r i Go to a place where everyone knows your name. 

the spirit of adven- 


turing will soon have you out and 
about in various exotic locations. 
Jake seems to be a friendly sort of 
chap and helping out his friends 
in need is the central point of the 
six quests you will undertake. The 
producers of Callahans have clev- 
erly given each of these self con- 
tained stories their own individ- 
ual flavours. For example, 
Adventures of a Lovesick 
Vampire will have you trapesing 
around a Transylvanian town 
searching for (hard to find) ingre- 
dients so as to lift a curse on the 
romantic partner of a friendly 
vampire. In contrast, A Real 


Your new friends. Attractive lot aren*t they! 


PC 








Our planet is Txschlrrr Ppppp...our system for 
government is Ccchrlxzz Ptzkrzmism. And our chief 
exports are fpfpzlllk. czztschrkrl. and fzzzkrplch. 



This is your character - the ugly one with the beard. 


Man’s Dillema involves manipu- 
lating the technical facilities on 
an alien space station, more puz- 
zle solving than object hunting. 
While both these storylines 
might sound original, how 
about accompanying a time 
travelling cop on 
her quest involving 
the saving of a rare 
chocolate plant in 
Brazil! On solving 
each story chapter, 
a visit back to 
Callahans is usually 
on the agenda, with the ultimate 
aim of saving the universe, but 
not before playing some Pub triv 
ia games and generally having 
some fun just chatting to weird 
characters just for the reason of 
having a good chuckle. 



It's funny too! 

It’s a tough call bringing comedy 
to games, with the risk of cringing 
replacing the intended laughs. The 
comedy on offer here is best 
described as clever one liners meets 
mild American flavoured Monty 
Python. Yep it’s not 
off the wall, roll 
around on the floor 
laughter material, but 
it’s cleverly written 
and kept a permanent 
grin on my face. 
Trying to perk up a 
drunk suicidal Vampire or dressing 
up as an alien courtesy of a pine 
tree air freshener, well it’s comedy 
that has a rewarding twist over your 
mid week TV sitcom. 

Nosing about in this odd version of 
reality might be fun, but it can be 




r k 


W | 


0 


very difficult as well. 

Some of the puzzles 
are comedy related and 
thus pretty obscure 
and often not logical. 

Being part of the “I 
want to enjoy a game 
without being stuck in 
one place for two 
weeks” crowd, I was 
mightily impressed 
that the hint book is 
included with the 
game. Containing gen- 
eral hints, a guide to the funny red 
herrings and a comprehensive walk- 
through it's very useful as a frustra- 
tion saver. I have a feeling that the 
makers realised that this is a pretty 
tough game, and wanted people to 
have the option of enjoying the 
atmosphere without getting bogged 
down in “fetch the hidden item”. 

Callahan’s Crosstime Saloon is 
the sort of game you play when 
wanting a change from blazing 
shotguns, saving Earth from a dark 
fate and general action fests. I 
found playing the game with a nice 
cup of coffee relaxing and general- 
ly enjoying the laid back attitude of 
the game made for a good evening. 
Besides we here at PowerPlay gen- 
erally like the concept of saving the 
universe whilst enjoying a good 
Ale in a Pub. 

Peter Sharpe 



A rare excursion from the bar 



80 © 


Category 

Adventure 

Players 

1 

Publisher 

Legend 

Entertainment 

Price 

$8995 

Rating 

MA15+ 

Available 

Now 


Original storyline is 



“So l*m lining my shot up, right, an* this guy bumps my arm and the cue goes right through the felt! So I killed ‘im. 



entertaining and 
rarely gets pre- 
dictable. It’s big and 
will take a while to 
complete (without 
constant use of the 
walkthrough). The 
different missions 
will take you to very 
diverse range of 
places. 

Due to the very con- 
ventional point and 
click 2D interface 
the game is not as 
immersive and 
looks dated next to 
titles like Pandora 
Directive. Don’t lose 
the hint book, some 
of the puzzles are 
overly obscure. 

486/DX66, 8 Mb 
RAM, 2 x CD 

486, 8Mb RAM, 4 X 
CD 









Dodgy graphics betray a very advanced game 
engine. All this cleverness lies beneath the 
surface in the form of advanced A.I. 


But I assure you, 
the heightened 
security is 
n ecessar u 



A little leap forward in 
adventure gaming has 
been achieved with 
Sentient. 


P lacing a space station in close 
orbit around a sun probably 
seemed a good idea at the 
time. Besides nothing could possi- 
bly go wrong parking a man made 
object next to an uncontrollable fur- 
nace equivalent to the force of 50 



Pushing visual frontiers...backwards 


million Nukes. All was going well, 
until crew members started coming 
down with that strange radiation 
sickness, and then of course was 
the rumour of mutiny by certain 
sections of the station’s personnel. 
Lasdy, there was the minor prob- 
lem of the station slowly and rather 
uncontrollably losing orbit and 
heading towards a very fiery end. 

As medical technician Garrit 
Sherova you were on route to 
Icarus Spacestation and going 
against the station's usual good for- 
tune a Sun Flare hit your shuttle 
sending you crash landing into the 
station’s docking bay. I had a feel- 
ing this was going to be one tough 
adventure... 

Real AI 

Sentient’s exotic location is 
matched by what’s best described 
as exotic visuals. Textured 
Polygons and very strange colour 
schemes make up most of the 


environment. The characters are 
similarly given the 3D Polygon 
treatment looking like relatives 
from Virtual Fighter. The choice of 
playing in a tiny Win 95 window 
will give you better resolution, but 
venturing into full screen things 
look decidedly blocky. The final 
result is a garish look that is rough 
around the edges, but suitably 
enough “Outpost in deep space” to 
convey some atmosphere. 3D 
graphics, menacing Sci-Fi storyline 
and time to go into adventure 
problem solving mode. So far pret- 
ty standard fare. What soon 
becomes an eye-brow raiser is the 
totally open behaviour of the crew. 
Walking around the various loca- 
tions crewmen can be seen under- 
taking their duties, roaming about 
the corridors and even chatting 
with each other. You are quite free 


to interrupt a person’s activities 
ask them questions, gain opinions 
and generally play the role of inves- 
tigator. This high level of interac- 


m 


Plus 


www.psygnosis.com -The 
bringer of good news says 
that Direct 3D is supported 
through Rendition and 
Matrox Mystique Video 
cards. 


'SMfUa&bh 


PC 








I know it isn t standard 
routine to release 
patients from 
observation without first 
conducting all relevant 
tests, bu 


68 © 


Adventure 


Psygnosis 


$TBA 


TBA 


Now 


A living space sta- 
tion with characters 
all doing their own 
thing. Multiple plots 
and endings that 
can vary depending 
on your actions. 

Slow going and 
generally frustrat- 
ing. Graphics while 
matching the set- 
ting in weirdness 
are blocky and 
quite jerky. Sluggish 
controls, this is no 
Quake engine. 

P90 16Mb RAM DOS 

P166 16Mb RAM 
DOS/WIN95 
180Mb Hard Drive 
Space for speedier 
performance 


tion really hits home when you 
walk up to somebody and ask them 
for the whereabouts of a person, 
the result being an escort to the 
required destination. A credit to 
the programmers is the way in 
which character’s behaviour and 
certain plot outcomes are different 
from game to game. Not helping 
an injured crew member in one 
game had me unpopular from the 
start, next game I played the Good 
Samaritan and was welcomed by 
previously aggressive individuals. 
Dare I say replay value in an 
adventure game? 


This game was born on a Playstation. Understand now? 


cer directs you to search a crew- 
man’s room for some important 
documents. After completing the 
snatch and grab mission, the offi- 
cer says thankyou and that’s about 
it... It was then time to wander 
about asking characters “What 
should I do now?” which was most- 
ly met by “I don’t know”. Bloody 
frustrating, thank goodness I had a 
walkthrough and was quickly on 
the lookout for some more docu- 
ments hidden about the place. If it 
wasn’t for the walkthrough, my 
impatience would have got the best 


of me. Mind you it’s a personal 
taste issue, and many adventurers 
like this sought of thing. A small 
hint, look in showers, behind com- 
puter desks and generally every- 
where, the crew here keep impor- 
tant things in the strangest of 
places. To make matters even more 
difficult, your time can be limited 
by certain actions (as well as the 
normal passage of time) as Space 
Station Icarus is constandy 
descending into it’s orbital furnace. 

In the future when open ended 
and advanced A I is the norm in 
computer games, we might just 
look back and say it all began with 
games such as Sentient. On the 
otherhand Sentient isn’t an adven- 
ture game in the lofty heights of 
the Zork Series, Pandora Directive, 
System Shock etc. While those 
games will have you questing 
through the pre-dawn hours 
Sentient is just overly boring 
because it relies on dull conversa- 
tions to keep the storyline moving. 
While this feature kept me from 
really enjoying Sentient, gamers 
that don’t mind slow plot advance- 
ment and hunting clues around 
corridors might find some enter- 
tainment value. 

Peter Sharpe 


Somewhat questionable decor colour schemes 


Those little touches... 

After being initially impressed 
with interactions with the crew, 
Sentient started to become a chore 
to play. While the characters will 
answer your questions in a variety 
of ways, they rarely escape the mold 
of a boring question and answer 
drone. Even differing facial expres- 
sions don’t liven up the proceed- 
ings. A Home and Away episode 
will seem Shakespearean compared 
to the conversations on offer here. 
All this isn’t helped by the absence 
of speech, instead we have very 
bland comic book speech bubbles. 
Ugly and one of those touches that 
really acts as a barrier to immersing 
yourself into the story. 

Sentient is generally open ended 
and non-linear in its design. This 
will be the bane for many gamers, 
as it's very common to be walking 
about the ship wondering what to 
do next. A lack of “Plot Signposts” 
to steer you in the right direction is 
severely lacking at times. A good 
example of this occurs early in the 
game. A high ranking medical offi- 





INTO THE VOID 

Yet another foray into the ever expanding space conquest genre. 
Except, this one’s actually quite good. 




this aspect. Humans 
aren’t the diplomatic 
superior race as often 
portrayed in this 
genre and boring 
futuristic utopias like 
Star Trek. Nope, here 
the humans are 
bunch of xenophobic 
aggressive expansion- 
ists — which is exact- 
ly what we are. 

Technologies come 
in two forms: those 
that you can add to 
ships and those that you can use to 
upgrade buildings. And there are 
more technologies in ITV than you 
can poke a stale bread stick at. After 
a day of constant rapid-play (some- 
thing I do when I just want to see 
how far I can get in one sitting) I 
didn’t manage to exhaust the supply 
of new technologies. Impressive, to 
say the least. And techs aren’t limit- 
ed to the size of the guns you can 
slap on your ships. You can 
research new agricultural methods, 
build space docks, institute plane- 
tary defences and create vast 
research centers. Want to improve 


Star systems offer varied opportunity for conquest. 


Plus 


http://www.playmatestoys 

.com/pages/pie/itv.htm 


I ■ |he best thing about a large 
portion of games that enter 
-L into the space strategy genre 
is that most of them are just plain 
crap. This is good, because after a 
couple of hours of play you can go 
to bed safe in the knowledge that 
they won't pull you from your slum- 
ber to play again. Into The Void 
isn’t quite like that. You see, it’s 
actually quite good. Damn good in 
fact. I’ve always said that the quality 
of a game can be measured by the 
size of the bags under your eyes the 
following day. Right now I’m sport- 
ing some very impressive bags. 


The universe is mine, all 
mine 

The premise behind ITV is the 
same as usual: breed fast, study 
those technology textbooks and 
then go around bashing all those 
neighbours you made alliances 
with last turn. In a surprisingly 
realistic twist, the computer AI 
does the same thing. Shoot first 
and don’t bother asking questions 
is the motto in ITV. Don’t expect 
aliens to come knocking on your 
door offering a cup of Twinings, 
peace is a word that doesn’t seem 


to exist in their 
vocabulary, a prob- 
lem it’s up to you to change. 

Taking a planet or two normally 
suffices. 

Diplomacy is awfully limited. In 
fact, there isn't any. You can tell a 
race you want to be friendly, they 
can tell you they want to be friend- 
ly, and the deal is struck. There’s 
no alliances, no trading, nothing. 
Simply non-aggression pacts. In a 
way it makes the gameplay easier, 
but it also removes what is normal- 
ly an integral aspect in strategy 
games such as this. 

There are six pre-defined races 
you can play, each 
with their own advan- 
tages and idiosyn- 
crasies. Most are as 
butt-ugly as you'd 
expect, with the dwee- 
by technologically 
advanced race looking 
remarkably similar to 
Earthworm Jim. As 
usual, you have the 
option of playing 
humans, but ITV is 
quite refreshing in 


*«■ 


A not so mighty fleet prepares for the worst... 


The ship design screen. No question about it, this game is smooth. 

















Online help is easy and detailed. 


An emminently usable interface. 


the quality of your 
spies? Upgrade your 
Terrorist Guild to a 
Guerilla Camp, then 
send those boys out to 
steal technology, incite 
riots or go about blow- 
ing up buildings full 
of people. Fun. 


Darn, that looks 
sexy 

The interface is very 
slick. Animation abounds. 
Everything you see from a military 
outpost on a planet to the weapons 
systems on a ship are animated 
with loads of frames. Looks very 
cool and draws you in. You com- 
mand your ever expanding empire 
through a series of context menus 
which pop up over just about any- 
thing and everything. Initially, these 



are a little confusing as they change 
depending on what happens to be 
currently selected, but once mas- 
tered the menu system provides 
quite an innovative and quick way 
to manage your planets, ships and 
resources. 

As you might expect in games of 
this genre there is the odd strange 
anomaly in ITV. For example you 
can send spies to an enemy planet 
to gather data, hassle pedestrians 
or start all out warfare by blowing 
up buildings almost instantly, 
whereas sending a war ship can 
take ten plus turns in flight time 
while you wait for it to arrive. 

Similarly some of the AI in your 
ships makes a Weetbix look like a 
promising conversation partner. 
Ships are known to shoot one target 
while ignoring a closer one that's 
started to pound it. And there’s an 
annoyingly easy trap to fall into 
when it comes to making hyper- 
space ships — keep them light. 

Your ships won’t tell you why you 
can’t move, they just won’t budge. 

Still, the game is addictive to 
play, that’s all I need say. ITV man- 
ages to combine all those fun fea- 
tures of power, war and technologi- 
cal advancement in a semi-realistic 
universe of solar systems and plan- 
ets. The smart lads at Electric Moo 
(yeah, my thoughts exactly) even 
had the brains to design ITV as a 
networkable and e-mailable game 
from the ground up. However 
turns are performed sequentially, 
not simultaneously, which makes 
for some long pauses in large mul- 
tiplayer games. 


If you liked MOO and MOO 2 , 
then ITV should be on your 
Christmas list. It's not quite as 
friendly as the MOO classics, but it 
does have a little more depth. 

Ashton Mills 



Category 

Players 

Publisher 

Price 

Rating 


Turn based strategy 
1-10 

Playmates Interactive 

$TBA 

G 


Available 

For 



Now 

Lots of races, ships 
and technologies. 
Smooth interface, 
impressive graphics 
and annoyingly 
addictive. 


Against 





ITV suffers from ‘big 
empire syndrome’ 
like many games of 
this genre’ do. When 
your empire becomes 
large the game can 
quickly lose its lustre 
from the repetitive 
and tiring manage- 
ment of loads of 
colony worlds. 

P60, 8Mb RAM, 

2xCD, DOS 5+ 




P90, 16Mb RAM, 
4xCD 














Plus 


80 © 


Category 

Players 

Publisher 

Price 

Rating 

Available 


Sports Sim 
1-4 

Sierra 

$TBA 

G 

Now 




Easy to learn and fun 
to play. Smart look- 
ing graphics com- 
bined with well 
designed holes. 

Controls a bit fiddly 
at times. Longterm 
enjoyment may be 
compromised by hav- 
ing only one set of 
eighteen holes. 

P90, 16Mb RAM, 
Win95, 4X CD 

Nothing special 


3D MINI GOLF 


break or when you want to wind 
down after a hard day at the abat- 
toir ‘nuff said. 

George Soropos 


www.sierra.com 

<3B iW'-pni 


Golf games have been around on the PC since the 
beginning, here’s one that’s fun! 


I 1 fhis takes me back to the days 
when I used to hang with the 
A local Port Macquarie chapter 
of the Hell’s Angels. On the week- 
ends we’d cruise around the 
numerous retirement villages see- 
ing who could cause the most heart 
attacks with a given number of 
RPMs. Of course I’d cheat by 
drilling holes in my muffler and 
hooning up and down the stair- 
wells, until I got bored and then 
we'd all head down to the local Putt 
Putt Golf course to get loaded. My 
favourite hole was the ‘Captain 
Bluebeard’ as its' hydraulic water 
motion always made Stinky puke, 
providing a much needed extra 
challenge on the back nine. 


50's cocktail music 

Now all the fun and excitement of 
my youth can be yours, with 
Sierra's new tide 3D Ultra Mini- 
Golf. Eighteen holes of both classic 
and high tech mini golf to enjoy 
with up to three of your friends and 
in the comfort of your very own 
home, b.y.o. vomit. 3D UMG (yeah 




Wey hey! It*s wacky golf. Fun too 


I’m lazy too) greets you with a 
rather appealing front end, kind of 
like Cindy Crawford. Cool cheezy 
50’s cocktail music filled with 
manic Maracas and burbling Vibes 
serenade you as you poke through 
the menus. Setting up a game is a 
simple matter of a few button clicks 
- front nine, back nine, full course, 
normal play or a ‘skins' type game 
are the main options and then 
you’re away. There’s also a practise 
mode but hey, you don’t ready need 
to get that anal about it. 

Classic windmill hole 

The holes are very well designed 
and will raise a smile on anyone 
who’s ever seen a mini golf course. 
Everything from the classic wind- 
mill hole to a lunar quarry, haunt- 
ed house and Inca Temple! Some 
of the holes are damn tricky to say 
the least with moving conveyor 
belts, blow hard whales and angry 
dinosaurs trying to get in your way. 
Some of the holes also have inter- 
active features like shuttle craft 
that take your ball on a little trip 


around the green, detonators that 
blow out walls when struck and 
volcanoes that erupt with fiery lava 
flows when your ball gets too close. 
Unfortunately however 3D UMG 
doesn't let you select individual 
holes so it’s impossible to just play 
your favourites. Most people proba- 
bly won’t be too put out by this 
though as virtually all the holes are 
fun to play and amusing as well. 

As a competitor to the variety of 
Pinball games out there 3D Ultra 
Mini Golf is perfect for those of 
you who don't want to make a big- 
ger commitment to your computer 
than you made to your wife. A fine 
way to pass time at the office 
between smoko and your coffee 








C&C for Win95 


The original and best is back, with sexy 
SVGA and internet play. 



C&C Win95 now supports internet play 



The new, huge viewing area makes C&C*s original maps look small 


! ■ ■■ |he original Command and 
Conquer, upgraded specifi- 
_L cally for Windows 95. A per- 
fect excuse to launch into some 
Microsoft jokes along the lines of 
“Did you hear the one about Bill 
Gates stuck on a desert island, with 
a load of IBM programmers and a 
crazed sheep?” On the other hand, 
we here at PowerPlay are a semi- 
respectable lot and don't like to 
propagate the myth that Microsoft 
is only slightly less menacing than 
the Brotherhood of Nod. In all fair- 
ness though, after playing Red 
Alert in its SVGA Win95 incarna- 
tion, going back to the original 
C&C DOS and its big and blocky 
VGA graphics was enough to make 
you wince. So, if you have an urge 
to see a flame throwing tank roast 



www.westwood.com -The 
warlords themselves. 

Good news is that C&C95 
is compatible with the old 
Covert Ops expansion disk 
and will also play over the 
modem with C&C DOS. 



some infantry just like the good old 
days (but in SVGA), Westwood 
have come to the rescue. 

4 X bigger view 

C&C’s conversion to SVGA graph- 
ics looks very tasty indeed. For those 
familiar to Red Alert it has basically 
the same appearance, with all units 
and buildings being small but highly 
detailed and greatly better looking 
than the old days of VGA. 
Correspondingly the view of the bat- 
tlefield is now four times larger, 
which has it’s good points but also 
an annoying off shoot. The 
increased viewing area allows for 
more effective planning as you can 
see more troops and just generally 
have a better Bird’s Eye view of your 
proceedings. The downside of all 
this is that the original C&C bat- 
tlemaps seem very small in compari- 
son with Red Alert. Well actually 
they are smaller in comparison as 
Westwood have not included Red 
Alert’s feature of bigger map sizes in 
C&C95. Westwood’s omission in 
this area is a bit of a disappointment 
and makes multi-player games seem 
overly cramped at times. In saying 
that, I’m not in a hurry to go back to 
crusty old VGA. SVGA is here and 
we’re all the better for it. 

Take on the world 

Internet junkies will be very 
pleased to know that C&C 9 5 is 
playable over WChat. For the unini- 
tiated, WChat is Westwood’s game 
server where you can hook up with 


warmongers from all around the 
world to chat and most importantly, 
play some C&C. It’s a free service, 
easily installed and generally hassle 
free, the only limitation being two 
people per game. My first game 
had me battling an American fel- 
low who beat me all too easily. In 
the name of Aussie pride I then 
engaged a Swedish opponent, 
which saw my Nod army come 
through with the goods... just. Red 
Alert is still the most popular game 
on WChat, but drumming up a 
game of C&C isn’t too hard. 

Apart from some bonus screen- 
savers and Plus Pack themes, there 
isn’t a lot more to C&C95. Sure, new 
units and more missions would 
have been nice, but what we have 
here is good old C&C with a new 
facelift. It's difficult to put a final 
score on this as it really depends on 
what your priorities are. If you don’t 
own the original game, go and grab 
C&C95 now as this is the definitive 
version of a classic game. If C&C 
DOS has a home in your CD rack 
then it’s a case of weighing up 
whether playing on WChat is worth 
the asking price. I’m a C&C nut and 



A spruced-up interface 


can’t get enough of it, so WChat is a 
second home for me. If you want to 
play in SVGA and are attracted to 
the idea of indulging in some com- 
bat with the world community, then 
C&C95 will not disappoint. 

Peter Sharpe 


80 © 


Strategy 

1-4 (network) 

Westwood Studios 

$TBA 

MA15+ 

Now 

The original leg- 
endary C&C with 
improved graphics 
and Internet Play, 
nuff said. 

Not much for those 
wanting something 
new in the C&C 
arena. You can still 
sandbag your way to 
the enemy base. 

Low end Pentium, 
8Mb RAM, Win95, 
28.8 Modem for 
Internet Play and a 
fast ISP. 

P100, 16Mb RAM, 
hunger for battle. 



PClPs 











© 


YOU DON'T KNOW JACK • 


MOVIES EDITION 


Amazing. Who’d have thought that you 
could make a decent game without 
amazing graphics and things that 
explode... 


Round 


F or those of you that have 
been crouching in a foetal 
position within a locked cup- 
board for the past year or two, ‘You 
Don’t Know Jack’ is one of the best 
computer games of the past few 
years. An audacious statement, I 
know, but it’s warranted. YDKJ is 
an irreverent trivia quiz game with 
a laconic host that successfully 
walks the line between traditional 
American obnoxiousness and just 
plain funny-ness, questions that 
are ridiculously twisted in ways 
that make you giggle and think at 
the same time, and absolutely 
hilarious (as well as powerfully 
ironic) fake advertisements placed 
at the end. It’s absolutely great. If 
you don’t have the original YDKJ 


^ . .. . ........ 

ttUGORltS Gareth 

Something New at the 
Concession Stand 

2 Bob Saget Doesn’t Need 
Another Series 

3 Girls on Girls Is OK, but Guys 
on Guys Is Gross 


Questions are viable but tough. 

yet, get it now. And while you’re at 
the local games store, you’ll proba- 
bly want to get a copy of YDKJ - 
Movies Edition too. You might well 
be thinking ‘A movie edition!? I 
know heaps about movies! I’ll be 
able to beat the pants of all my 
friends and become wildly popular 
and good looking!’. Read on. 

Everyone’s an expert... 

It’s a funny thing, but when we 
got our hands on a copy of this, 
everyone (including me) immedi- 
ately began saying how ‘movies 
were their speciality’ and that they 
were going to trounce everyone 
else. Sure YDKJ was a great trivia 
game (and still is) but everyone 
seems to think that they have an 
encyclopedic memory of every 
movie ever made, and thus when 




Time for slumber suntan. 


I'm your number one fanj 


we began a few 
rounds of YDKJ - 
Movies Edition there 
were plenty of faces 
looking expectandy 
victorious. However, 
it was time for all of 
us to take a reality 
check when the final 
Jack Attack was over 
- we didn’t know half 
(or even a quarter) as 
much as we thought 
we did. Or maybe the 
questions were too 
hard. Or maybe... but 
the excuses are just 
that, excuses. The 
compere of YDKJ-ME 
is a completely obnox- 
ious and supercilious 
American prick, typi- 
fying all the qualities 
any sensible person 
loathes - when you 
screw up an answer 
he’s going to be there 
with a caustic com- 
ment to make you feel even stupid- 
er, or he’ll just generally degrade 
you during the game. The thing is, 
he does it so well that I didn’t get 
offended, and instead I found 
myself laughing heartily at his 
nasty little jibes rather than throw- 
ing my mouse at the screen. 


It’s FUNNY! 

Anyway, it’s a good thing that 
YDKJ-ME isn’t a cakewalk - nobody 
wants to play a game that’s too 
easy, and nor do they want to play 
a game that’s too hard. YDKJ-ME 


fill in the blank 


A Q /lo O a 

Gareth Malcolm Ben 

$0 $ 3,000 $ 3,000 


Even an old 486 (8Mb) can run this 


$1,000 

4 0 

Gareth 

$0 


It’s said in a Stephen King movie ... 

... by a mad nurse. 
You’re number one! 


Malcolm 

-$/ooo 


Ben 

$ 5,500 


lt*s a funny and competitive game this, although bizarre scoring anomolies do occur. 


th( iouowmc QUESTION has run ratio numbi a 


SEVENTEEN 


Funny question intros. 


v t 

*/ 


is neither too hard or 
too easy though, it’s 
just right. It’s got all 
the wit and polish of 
the original YDKJ’s, 
but the questions are, 
obviously enough, 
about movies rather 
than general trivia. 
There’s new introduc- 
tory sequences to all 
the questions too, and 
they’re often very 
funny as well, both 
visually and aurally. A 
nice touch is that 
there are two or three different 
intro sequences for each question, 
which helps to keep the game var- 


|\\ 


El 


Plus 


www.berksys.com/prod- 
ucts/jack/movies.html for 
the Movies homepage, but 
to play the online version 
of YDKJ and YDKJ - Sports 
Edition go to 
www.bezerk.com. Be 
warned though - the sports 
edition questions are often 
very Amero-centric. 



ied and re-playable. So you can 
expect all the good things that 
came with the original YDKJ as 
well as some very pretty enhance- 
ments and some very witty 
enhancements. It’s one that’s 
going to stay on my hard drive for 
a long, long time. 

Gareth Jones 


88 © 


Trivia Quiz 

1-3 (same computer) 
Berkely Systems 
$ 49-95 
M15+ 

Now 

Continues the fun of 
the first YDKJ releases 
without getting stale. 
Heaps of questions, 
heaps of commen- 
tary, heaps of fun. 

Only three players 
maximum. Surely 
four could be accom- 
modated? 

486DX/33,i6Mb 
RAM, 4XCD, Win 
95/Win 3. IX 

Nothing special 


Category 

Players 

Publisher 

Price 

Rating 

Available 
















Hundreds of years 
have passed since 
humanity was nearly 
totally decimated by a 
cataclysm which 
destroyed civilisation 
on Earth. The new 
society was tribal, 
forced to live in 
Medieval conditions 
once again. Made up 
of clans allied for or 
against one another 
on hostile ground.... 









SHIVERS! 

Puzzle games come 
dressed in the most 
unlikely wrapping 
these days... 


I ■ -^ h e plot would have been 
rejected by ‘The X-Files’. 

JL Some friends of yours, mem- 
bers of the unnecessarily-goateed 
rock group Trip Cyclone, have been 
staying in the tiny American town of 
Cyclone (spook!) 
buried deep inside a 
foreboding canyon. 

While shooting videos 
there for a couple of 
weeks, they are 
intrigued by the recent 
mysterious disappear- 
ance of a number of 
the locals. So they 
decide to investigate, promising to 
conceal in their newly-made video 
clips any clues they might find. A 
terribly contrived idea, I know, but - 
hey! - it’s a computer game. 


stick. Is this making sense? 

It turns out that you have to take 
this bent stick into the big dark 
spooky canyon and place it into the 
correct slot in this thing called the 
Kiva. And all the time you’re carry- 
ing this stick, your 
health is depleting for 
seemingly arbitrary 
reasons. Oh, and 
while you’re in the 
canyon don’t forget to 
Find the squiggle on 
the wall that matches 
your bent stick and 
complete the hope- 
lessly unentertaining jigsaw puzzle 
that will open the way to the Kiva. 
Try not to take too long, mind, ‘cos 
otherwise you’ll be dead. 



Nutter inn-keeper. With bat 


Complete paranoid nutter 

After not hearing from your 
friends in some time, you feel suf- 
ficiently concerned to hop on your 
motorbike and head off to Cyclone 
in search of them. Predictably, the 
owner of the nearby motor inn is a 
complete paranoid nutter, but he 
lets you have a room anyway. Then 
on the first night of your stay you 
have a strange dream about a car 
crash. Then whilst snooping 
around the motor inn you discover 
a curious mystical ‘jack in the box’ 
which talks and gives you a bent 



Two kinds of puzzles 

There are twelve of these sticks in 
all (which means twelve jigsaw puz- 
zles too!), and each has to be found 
and placed in the Kiva before you 
win the game. Accomplishing this 
entails wandering around town 
reading books and scraps of paper 
that say things like, “In the begin- 
ning, the creatures of the world 
lived in the second world deep 
under the ground...” and solving 
two kinds of puzzles. The first type 
of puzzle involves doing simplistic 
activities such as putting a video 
tape into a video player, or reading 
a letter that says there’s a key under 
Burt’s trailer then going to Burt’s 
trailer and picking up the key. 

The second sort of puzzle will 
constantly thrill you with riveting 
sequences where, for example, you 
may have to bounce an egg across a 



Being a sierra game, the graphics 
are top notch 



Despite its Rock n Roll FMV adventure look. Shivers 2 is actually a puzzle 
game. Puzzling eh? 


maze without it falling down a hole. 
Others I have encountered consist- 
ed of rolling eight balls through a 
system of tubes to place them in 
numerical order, guessing where 
the cards are after they have been 
shuffled around, forming a symbol 
with some sliding blocks, guiding a 
spider through another maze, and 
(at last count) five bloody jigsaw 
puzzles. I simply cannot wait for 
the one in which I’ll have to create 5 
piles of 2 donuts in 5 moves, or to 
move the marbles onto their match- 
ing squares in 38 moves or less! 

Never once, while playing Shivers 
2, did I feel like I was participating 
in anything more than a flimsy 
excuse to string together a couple 
of dozen extremely dodgy, and 
mostly unrelated, logic puzzles. 
This is an adventure game with no 
plot, no mystery, no atmosphere, 
no challenge, and no adventure. 

David Wildgoose 



The suitably eerie 
music is quite good. 


There’s a story and 
some terrible puz- 
zles, but they have 
absolutely nothing to 
do with each other. 
Unhealthily point- 
less. 

486DX2/66, 12Mb 
RAM, 2 xCD 

Pentium, 16Mb RAM, 
4xCD, Win95 












Hilad Corporation PTY Limited ACN 064 326 361 
Unit 3 25 Ossary Street Mascot NSW 2020 Australia 
Tel: (61-2) 9700 9377 Fax: (61-2) 9700 9409 
e-mail: hilad@mpx.com.au Internet: www.hilad.com.au 

F - 1 6 Fighting Falcon' is a registered trademark ol Digital Integration Limited 






microfiles 


NBA Jam Extreme 


PUBLISHER 


Sports/ Arcade 
1-4 

Acclaim 

Ttba 

~G 

Now 

P133, 16Mb RAM, 
WIN 95 

P166, 16Mb RAM, l 
button Gamepad 


overall 

390 


A Disappointing and 
unnecessary sequel. 


T hose of us that 

have spent way too [ 
long gaming have 
seen NBA Jam appear on 
most gaming formats 
over the years. Starting as | 
a coin swallower in 
arcades, and then appear- 
ing on the fondly remembered 
Megadrive and SNES, NBA Jam 
was a popular title for those who 
like their Basketball high on action 
and low on rules. Two on two 
Basketball, with all out fouling 
encouraged and a heavy flavouring 
of somersaulting Dunks and gener- 
al antics that Superman would be 
proud of. Well it’s 1997 and NBA 
Jam Extreme attempts to make a 
home on the PC. Boasting newly 
improved 3D graphics, textured 
polygon players and new extreme 
moves, Acclaim are hoping for a 
new round of Slamming action. 

The setup procedure is similar to 
the original. All the NBA teams to 
choose from and all the players 
ranked with different abilities, such 
as passing, speed and the all impor- 
tant Dunk factor. It has to be said 
that playing this game without a four 



button gamepad will 
have you playing “Finger I 
Twister” on your key- 
board or missing out on turbo and 
Extreme powerups on a two button 
Control pad. 

Into the game sees running com- 
mentary and textured Polygons 
everywhere, but it just doesn’t come 
together well. The ball moves in odd 
angles and the players sort of stag- 
ger towards the backboard. Controls 
were far from responsive and while 
the super moves are not too frustrat- 
ing to execute, the whole fun factor 
was way down because of the above 
problems. The biggest downer 
though with this “suped up” version 
is the generally crap graphics 
engine. On full detail the game was 
a slideshow on a P150. Switching to 
low res mode, turning off floor tex- 
tures, crowd etc did not improve 


New! Flaming Max Air Super Tops 
Nikes! 


things. Considering that NBA Live 
97 ran quite well on the same P150, 
it's a real disappointment to see the 
poor performance of NBA Jam con- 
sidering it has to move considerably 
less objects around the screen than 
the big boy of NBA titles. 

This sequel while adding some 
new Extreme powerup dunks etc just 
doesn’t add anything worthwhile to 
NBA Jam. It’s less fun because of 
stodgy controls, poor graphics and 
the like. Whilst the original uses 
sprites and is not a whizz bang in 
the brave new world of 3D it’s faster 
paced than this offering and is just a 
whole lot more entertaining. 

Peter Sharpe 


Vegas Games 




by shoving coins into the floppy drive 


\need 


Now 

486/33, 8Mb RAM 
WIN 95 

486/66 with above 


overall 

600 


Not as flashy as other gam- 
bling sims, but it gets the 
job done. 


omputer gambling sims 
offer different things to dif- 
ferent people. For the real 
life gamblers they offer a controlled 
environment for testing strategies 
out for that “Big” win in the Casino 
down the road. For the crowd who 
indulge in Windows Solitaire, Poker 
and Blackjack WU195 style can offer 
a similar sort of enjoyment. In my 
case, it was seeing how easy 1000 
bucks of virtual cash could be flit- 
tered away in under half an hour. 
Oh well, if we dress up in Tuxedos, 
deck out our computer room in lots 
of green velvet we can get a vague 
taste of the high rolling lifestyle. 

Vegas Games showcases six games 
that will be familiar to those fond of 
all things card and dice. First off the 
rank are the Slot Machine and Video 


Poker coin cruncher sims. While the 
real life variants of these one armed 
bandits are known for inducing 
chronic boredom, wait to you try the 
cashless versions on offer here. 
Choose how much “money” you 
pump in and then mouse click away, 
a very dull experience. Video Keno 
suffers from the same affliction. 
Similar to Lotto (but with more varia- 
tion in the odds), you pick some ran- 
dom numbers and see if they come 
up trumps.. Zzzz. The last three are 
Blackjack, Craps and Roulette. They 
not only inject some skill into the 
proceedings, but allow for some 
multi-player participation. Internet, 
Modem and Serial play are available 
and have to be a major step up from 
that dreaded slot machine. A very 
strange omission is that Poker (of 


the card variety) has been left out. 
This is usually a standard inclusion 
in such gambling games and is sort 
of like leaving out the shotgun in a 
Doom clone. 

While everything is well handled 
with a simple Mouse interface and 
appropriate graphics and sound 
Vegas Games is quite bare boned. 
Other gambling sims (i.e. Hoyle 
Casino reviewed back in 
PowerPlay #10) offer clever com- 
puter opponents and a whole 
Casino atmosphere. Vegas Games 
is just six self contained gambling 
sims with no frills or gloss. Still, 
there aren’t any faults in the pre- 
sentation so if you like the idea of 
having a flutter on your PC, Vegas 
Games will keep you amused. 

Peter Sharpe 



PC 























ta» w i m m& xmm 


microfiles 



Flip O ut! 


CATEGORY 


Puzzle 


PLAYERS m 


PUBLISHER 


Gametek 


PRICE 


$TBA 


rating m ci 


VAILABLE 


Now 


NEED 


486DX/33, 8Mb RAM, 
zxCD 


WANT 


486DX2/66, 16Mb 
RAM 


overall 

73© 

An inventive, neat, compelling 
puzzler with some gorgeously 
globby aliens. 



A fter an endearingly cute 

opening sequence, Flip Out! 
presents a coloured 3x3 
square grid surrounded by a num- 
ber of gorgeously globby aliens. On 
closer inspection, it is revealed that 
the grid is actually a layer of 
coloured squares on the ground and 
a set of like-coloured tiles placed on 
top. Press Ctrl and the game starts 
with all the tiles tossed into the air, 
along with a tenth ‘rogue’ grey tile, 
before they begin to fall back onto 



The only puzzle game to feature little green men 
and a disco ball 


the wrong squares. 

The aim is to move the 
cursor around the grid, 
tossing (or flipping) 
tiles until they all 
match up again. 

Strategy becomes evi- 
dent when you realise 
that the tile you just 
flipped will land on the 
square vacated by the 
next tile you flip. Of 
course, if you don’t 
manage to flip that 
next tile in time, the 
previous one will come crashing 
down on top of another one and the 
game will be lost. It’s all a bit like 
juggling then. Only a bit easier, and 
a hell of a lot more fun. 

Things become complicated 
somewhat when, after a few 
increasingly difficult layouts of tiles, 
the grid changes to a pyramid of six 
tables where you have to flip food to 
match the hungry aliens, or a frac- 
tured Mount Rushmore where you 
must hurl around bits of dead presi- 
dents. A little later there is an 'anti- 
gravity' level with a floor and two 
walls of tiles that flip in different 


directions and it all gets pretty con- 
fusing. Yet, at the same time, 
remaining undeniably engaging. 

And 1 haven’t even mentioned 
what antics those gorgeously globby 
aliens get up to. They start walking 
on top of all your tiles so it’s hard to 
see which colour the squares are, 
they lie on top of tiles so you can’t 
flip them, they (good lord!) eat tiles 
so you have to ‘flip’ them several 
times and force them to cough it 
back up, they flip tiles themselves 
and, oh, plenty more besides, but I 
seem to have run out of space. 

David Wildgoose 


Luna Ticks 


CATEGORY 


Action/Strategy 


PLAYERS 


PUBLISHER 


Manaccom 


PRICE 


$39-95 


RATING ■£ 


AVAILABLE 


NEED 


Now 

486/33, 8Mb RAM, 
DOS 


WANT 


Non-Ninja should 
cope fine. 


overall 

61© 


Simple but entertaining, Luna 
Ticks is an Aussie game so at 
least grab the shareware and 
check it out. 


Launching into a game of Luna 
Ticks for the first time brought 
back visions of the Commodore 
64. At the risk of sounding like an 
old fart gamer, it was a time when 
gameplay had to have an original 
twist and stand on its own two feet 
without the help of flashy graphics 
and the like. On the other hand, 
there is no way any of us would 
swap our modern hard drives for 
that clunky old horror that was the 
C-64 tapedeck! Thankfully while 
Luna Ticks boasts graphics that are 
comparable with the C-64, no 
tapedeck is needed. 

Luna Ticks has you controlling a 
robotic mining vehicle called a 
“Tick”. The idea is to enter a series 
of mazes where you have a factory 
that produces all manner of trinkets 
from Tick power-ups, factory 
defenses and the all important 
Credit Pods. Of course, trinkets 
need resources and thus you power 
your Tick about the place shooting 
off and collecting Cutter Orbs that 
mine precious material out of the 
maze walls. Every now and then a 
ship representing the “Greedy Bank 
Manager" cruises by and you must 



This doesn't look like your average strategy game... 


pay back your mining 
debt through Credit 
Pods. You aren’t alone 
in your urge to pay back 
the bank and there are 
other mining setups in 
each maze, allowing 
everybody to steal Credit 
Pods, Cutter Orbs and 
generally create havoc 
with each other. The 
trick involves balancing 
your resources so you are mining as 
much as possible, while building 
enough weapons to keep those 
enemy prospectors busy... all the 
while decreasing your loan with the 
big boy financier. 

You can comprehensively alter 
the playing style by a whole gamut 
of options that adjusts 
everything from the 
enemy A I to weapon 
technology. Playing 
the computer does get 
a bit dull after a while, 
but not to fear as 
Luna Ticks offers 
Network and 
Modem/Serial sup- 
port. Network with 8 


people all battling away in mining 
Ticks... it’s got the potential for a 
Friday night junk food free for all. 
While definitely not an earth shat- 
tering release, Luna Ticks has got a 
fun twist doing resource manage- 
ment the light hearted way. 

Peter Sharpe 



PCIRDiaailFllES/ 























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Accelerate your world. 



WHICH MODEM 7 


The PowerPlay lab test 

by Daniel Cohen 





ith more and more ser- 
vices these days moving 
into the online world, it 
seems as though if you 
don’t have a modem you 
could well be missing out on something. 
Modems have proved that they can do more 
than just transfer files, with added speed and 
voice functionality they have become a standard 
item for anyone working from a Home Office, 
as it is now also fax machine and an answering 
service. All this is good and useful, but as we all 
know, a modem really only serves one purpose - 
to expand your gaming horizons. A modem 
offers you the opportunity to play your favourite 
game live over the phone lines with a friend, or 
even on the internet with users from all around 
the world. As modems evolve so does the tech- 
nology immediately around it, but how can we 
possibly leap into something that we are still so 
unclear about? The tests carried out for this arti- 
cle were only one factor in the overall scheme of 
things. There is much more to a modem than 
blazing transfer speeds, and with the help of 
this guide we hope to clear the air of some of 
the confusion, as well as give you an insight into 
which modem not only performs best in online 
games, but can also assist you with your every- 
day SOHO needs. 


The Setup 

To test these modems we had to make an neu- 
tral environment, a situation where no modem 
would be operating under better conditions than 
the next. To do this I set up two near identical 
Pentium 133's with 32 megabytes of RAM, 16550 
serial chips and running Windows 95. The soft- 
ware used was HyperTerminal, as standard with 
Windows 95. To create a consistent phone line 
devoid of any interference we used a PSTN 
(Public Switched Telephone Network) emulator. 
This took out any extra variables that can affect a 
modem’s performance; line noise, random 
modems at the other end of the line, time of day 
etc., and by doing so we created, if not perfect 
line conditions, a telephone line that could be 
consistently relied upon to allow these modems 
to operate at 100%. 

The modems were assembled straight out of 
the box and connected using the drivers sup- 
plied, otherwise the standard Windows ‘95 dri- 
ver would be installed. The port speed was set 
to 115 200 for every modem, and with the 
exception of the 2 US Robotics modems, none 
of the modems received any initialisation other 
than at&f (to restore factory defaults) or atso=2 


for the answering modem to answer the calls. 
(Late at night I also slipped in an atmo to dis- 
able the speaker - modems can make a sound 
that will pierce an otherwise quiet night!). The 
criteria for the test was to record the average 
transfer speed of a 1 megabyte text file and a 1 
megabyte compressed file (zip format) - both 
sending and receiving using the Z-modem pro- 
tocol. Each file was sent and received 3 times 
and the average CPS (characters per second) 
was recorded. 

All of the modems were pitted against two of 
the industry leaders - the Netcomm 
SmartModem 336 and the Hayes Optima 
BusinessModem 336. The Hayes choice was 
straight forward - any modem purchased in 
Australia would be a Hayes-Compatible 
modem. Hayes are recognised as being the 
first company to make a modem (almost 20 
years ago when they released their first 300 
bps modem) and have been front-runners ever 
since. Hayes’ premier modem, the Optima 
BusinessModem 336 boasts the latest in DSP 
technology and can feasibly communicate at 
230 400 bps using 8:1 compression. The 
Netcomm Smartmodem 336 is in the same 
class using the Rockwell 288DPi DSP chipset 
with the Motorola 68302 CPU and 2 
megabytes of RAM, it too can compress data 
up to 8 times allowing for a potential through- 
put of 230k bps. The other reason for selecting 
this modem is that a large percentage of bul- 
letin boards and Internet Service Provider dial- 
ups are Netcomm modems. 


The Line-Up 

All of the modems boasted so many features 
that it would take some time to actually read the 
entire contents of any of the boxes. But we need 
to focus on one feature of each, and that is the 
maximum operating speed of the modems. In 
this case we are using a V34 modem, or 33.6k 
(that’s 33 600 characters per second). All of the 
modems supplied can communicate at lower 
speeds than the prescribed, but our tests want to 
provide reliability at speed. All of the cables, 
manuals and software supplied with the 
modems were for PC connections unless other- 
wise specified. Most external modems are not 
computer specific (this excludes the Global 
Village Teleport which is Mac only), and in most 
cases all that is needed for a Mac to use any of 
these modems is a Mac modem cable (see your 
dealer or the manufacturer for more details). All 
boxes but a few contained assorted Internet 
Service Provider disks. 


An Overview of " The Perfect 
Modem” 

In my mind there is such thing as “The 
Perfect Modem”, but of course I am yet to meet 
it. This modem would be of an ideal size so that 
you could place it on your desk where it is acces- 
sible and easy to view, yet out of harms way. 
With most modems you receive a huge trans- 
former that renders half of the sockets on a 
power-board useless. The perfect modem would 
have a plug that takes up just the required space 
which allows all outlets to be accessible. All fea- 
tures of this modem should be easy to operate 
(such as the power on/off switch), the software 
drivers included install without fuss, and the 
manual be informative yet not too lengthy. If 
something should go wrong, you know there’s a 
good team behind you to make things right with 
The Perfect Modem, and of course The Perfect 
Modem doesn’t cost an arm and a leg. 

The Perfect Modem will be the ‘yard-stick’ by 
which the varying features of the modems being 
tested will be measured. 


Avtek MegaModem 336 

For years now, Avtek have been putting good reli- 
able modems on the market at an affordable cost. 
This Avtek modem comes in a consumer-friendly 
plastic case on a cardboard backing that allows you 
to see everything included, but although the large 
yellow sticker might say “Open With Care, 
Installation Instructions On Back” it’s not that 
easy. Once I had clawed my way inside I found a 
compact power plug, ideal in size allowing full 
access to other sockets on the board. The Avtek 
requires a unique cable, with a 9 pin parallel to a 
circular 8 pin at the other end. For me to use this 
modem however I required a 9-25 pin parallel con- 
verter, which unfortunately was not supplied in the 
packaging. 6 floppy disks were also supplied; 2 
with driver software, 2 for Adobe Acrobat, and 2 
for the Cooee communications software. 

Over the years Avtek modems have adopted the 
shell of other modems; most recently it looked 
like a Motorola LifeStyle, but the new look Avtek 
has taken on the form of the popular palm-sized 
Netcomm Roadster. The LED’s are small and dif- 
ficult to view but it was very simple to install 
from the drivers supplied. The Avtek performed 
below par when everything was weighed up, 
however it was reliable and never hiccupped en- 
route to producing times that were perhaps a 
shade under the average in its class. The Avtek 
also comes in a Mac pack, complete with Mac 
cables and the MacComCentre software package 
for terminal and fax communication. 







The WaveSP comes in packaging that is 
unlike any other, and the actual modem is on 
full display inside the triangular plastic casing. 
There were no problems installing the modem 
using the drivers supplied on the CD-ROM and 
following the instructions painted on a colourful 
6 page leaflet. The manual itself is adequate and 
the power adaptor is large but narrow, proving 
to be power-board friendly. The cable is a 9-9 
pin parallel, but a 9-25 pin converter is supplied 
for those who use a 25 pin com port. Also 
included is a line-out cable that makes its way 
from the modem to your sound card. This 
means that when you are using SVD 
(Simultaneous Voice and Data), you can hear 
through the speakers attached to the computer, 
and communicate with the built-in microphone. 
The modem acts as a full-duplex speakerphone - 
this means that you can talk hands free without 
sounding as though you are in an empty room. 

The modem itself takes on the shape of a wave, 
with a convex front panel looking a bit like a 
miniature Sydney Opera House. The indicator 
lights are large, well marked and easy to view even 
at an angle. All cables slip easily into the marked 
ports on the back, and the power switch on the 
right-hand side is easy to access. Performance- 
wise the WaveSP behaved a little better than most. 
It connected to both host modems efficiently, and 
was a shade quicker than the bulk of the modems 
at both sending and receiving data. There is room 
for an optional headset. 


Banksia MyFastModem 



The MyFastModem is part of the Banksia 
SOHO series, and has retained its mid-sized 
case that the first MyFastModems were shipped 
in. It comes with QuickLink II fax and terminal 
software and informative manuals for using 
both the modem and QuickLink II. It was very 
easy to install, the transformer fits harmonious- 
ly into a power-board, but if there is one issue 
with the MyFastModem it is the On/Off switch - 
it’s very difficult to find and stiff to operate. 

Connecting to both the Optima and the 
SmartModem 33.6 was no problem, and data 
communication was solid throughout and there 
was little wait for the file transfer to commence. 
In all the MyFastModem was a stable competi- 
tor, but its current pricing perhaps doesn't suit 
as it does not offer any voice capabilities. 


Dynalink V1433VQE 



This modem has everything that’s necessary to 
get started - a 33.6k modem with SVD, a set of 
headphones with microphone that plug straight 
into the right panel of the modem, and driver 
disks that make the installation simple. The 
power plug was disproportionately large, the RS- 


232 cable rattled when it moved and the manu- 
al, although informative fell into the “generic” 
category, and made no mention of the fact that 
it was for the modem you had in front of you. 

When transferring data it was found to be a 
the slowest of the lot, but the minimal charac- 
ters per second transfer difference equates to 
seconds at best. It was up to 5 seconds slower 
sending the zip file (taking approximately 4:48) 
over 1 megabyte. At the time of reviewing the 
Dynalink came free with a full version of one of 
the most popular 3D action games, Quake. For 
those who have more to do than play games, 
you can swap Quake for either VoiceGuard or 
InternetPhone, both full versions. 


GVC Teleport (not shown) 



The Global Village Communications modem 
is a Mac only modem that requires a Geoport or 
similar connection to operate. The modem itself 
is very small, and the cable is stuck to the body 
of the modem. It ends in a DIN 8 pin plug, 
which slots right into your Geoport. The box 
itself is covered with features, it might even be a 
little too busy, but is roughly the same size as 
Quark Xpress and makes for easy storage on a 
shelf or in a cupboard. The modem needs no 
external power, as it draws its power through 
the serial cable. The Getting Started Guide 
explains what each of the components are, and 
how to go about installing them. 

The modem fits in your hand, and consists of 
only 3 LED’s. There is an on-screen display in 
the menu-bar of any application if you are con- 
nected using this modem, making it easy to 
keep track of throughput and progress. When 
pitted against our test modems we found that it 
performed as well as the rest of them, and there 
were no dramas getting the modem to respond 
in Zterm ‘out of the box’, nor did it have any 
problems sending or receiving data. 


Hayes Accura 

MESSACEMODEN 336 

v.v.v/. 

The Hayes modems come in colourful compact 
boxes with the numbers 3-3-6 plastered on the 
cover. Once you remove the egg-carton packaging 
from inside you are confronted by 3 disks 
(SmartCom LE spans 2 disks, the other contains 
the Accura Windows drivers), manuals for 
SmartCom and a Netscape Navigator Personal 
Edition CD. The power pack that will fit into any 
standard power outlet comfortably allowing all 
ports to remain accessible. However the manual 
for the modem is a standard guide for Hayes 
modems, and it contained no information specific 
to the Accura. The same manual was found in the 
Optima box, and although it was easy to read and 
contained good installation instructions it would 
have been nice to have a model-specific manual. 

The modem itself is a sleek low-profile unit 
that makes the LED’s easy to view. The power 
switch located at the back right by nature is dif- 

PCIPmMtey 


ficult to operate, but perhaps because of the 
lower profile it is easier to access than most like 
it. When connected to its stable-mate it trans- 
ferred files rapidly, averaging a very high speed 
except for receiving the text file where it was 
evenly spaced between the ‘elite’ modems and 
the rest of the field. It’s important to note here 
that the 9.8k per second achieved in our tests 
with the Netcomm and the Hayes Optima are 
near to the 115.6k bps maximum speed the 
Accura can achieve when utilising full compres- 
sion. Perhaps the one drawback with this 
modem is that it is not Flash-ROM upgradeable, 
which means when the Accura steps up to 56k 
technology you will have to return the modem 
to the manufacturer for a replacement. 


Hayes Optima 

MESSACEMODEM 336 



The Hayes Optima, as mentioned in the pre- 
amble, is one of the more advanced modems 
available today, and these tests outlined just 
what the difference is between the high-end 
modems and the rest. 

It too comes in a compact box, which when 
emptied reveals disks containing SmartCom 
MessageCentre LE and the Windows drivers, as 
well as the respective SmartCom and standard 
Hayes modem manual. The phone cable provid- 
ed was ready to build, and the Windows 
Plug’n’Play installation was quick and effortless. 

As the tests proved when talking to a 
SmartModem it really does utilise the extra 
power it possesses making transfer speeds 
quicker, and when connected to the Hayes 
Accura it once again outshone. The major draw- 
back with this modem is its price, which is cur- 
rently listed at $399. This takes the modem out 
of many peoples price range, but if you require 
either a message centre for your home office or 
a modem that can transfer large files quickly, 
then this modem is a worthy option. Future 
upgrades for the Hayes Optima are Flash-ROM 
(software) ugradeable, which means you need 
only download the latest drivers from the inter- 
net or the Hayes BBS to stay in touch with the 
latest speeds. After being left on for a short time 
the modem started to get quite warm, though it 
did not affect the performance in our tests. 


Hayes Optima PCMCIA 

28*8 (not shown) 


This modem will fit simply into any Type 2 or 
Type 3 PCMCIA slot, laptop or desktop dock. It 
had no problems connecting to the Powerbook 
we used for the occasion, and took kindly to the 
emulator and the lab conditions. 

Even though it was only a 28.8k bps modem 
we put it through its paces. It had no problems 
connecting to either modem, but it did commu- 
nicate with the Hayes a little better. It was quick 
to get into a constant rhythm, and performed 
well when both sending a receiving text. 


Micronica Jumbuck SAVD 

When I looked at the Micronica modem box 
I was confused - although the box told me it 
was a 33.6k bps fax modem with voice, I was 
unsure of what it was called. I was then 
drawn to the unobtrusive sticker in the lower 
left hand corner which informed me that it 
was the Jumbuck SAVD. Inside the box the 
surprises continued - there were no driver 
disks or Internet Service Provider disks, the 
power supply was large and branded with a 
yellow Micronica sticker, and the manual was 
poorly worded. The only thing that made this 
manual a Micronica manual was the sticker 
on the front cover. No headphones were 
included in the package. The modem did 
autodetect at startup, and when prompted to 
install a driver I was advised by Micronica in 
Melbourne to use the standard modem driver 
for Windows ‘95. 

The modem itself is a small light green 
unit, and when it was taken out of the box the 
back panel almost fell off exposing the circuit 
board and various wires. The front panel has 
9 LED’s and also contains the headphone and 
microphone jacks. Needless to say, the only 
badge on the modem itself was a Micronica 
sticker. 

All of the aesthetic values aside, the Jumbuck 
did prove to be reliable when connecting to both 
of the subject modems. It wasn’t the quickest in 
its class, but it did moves the files between the 
remote computer and itself efficiently, although 
it tended to be slower when sending both the 
compressed file and text data. 


Netcomm Roadster 

v.vvv.v 

When I opened the Roadster box the first 
thing to greet me was a 4 page leaflet explain- 
ing to me what everything was and where it 
was meant to go. The cable supplied is the 
unique Roadster 9 pin parallel to DIN 8 
modem cable, and a 9-25 pin converter was 
included. There is also a set of headphones 
with a microphone attached for all of those 
nights spent utilising the SVD functions of 
this modem. Most modems have 2 ports at the 
rear to allow piggy backing of your telephone 
hand-set, but because the Roadster is so com- 
pact Netcomm have provided a phone cable 
that will allow a hand-set to be added onto the 
back on the modem connection. With the 
assistance of the Netcomm CD installation 
was simple once the modem had been detect- 
ed during startup. 

The modem itself is same ‘size of your palm’ 
unit we have become accustomed to, with the 
power switch on the rear left and the 
headset/microphone ports a little closer to the 
front. When put to the test the Netcomm 
Roadster performed above most with com- 
pressed files, but was very much the same for 
text transfers, both sending and receiving. 




PCRwaaflfeE/ 




Netcomm MemoryModem 



Netcomm SmartModem 336 w 

■■v.v.v. 

The Netcomm SmartModem range is the elite 
of the Netcomm fleet, all headed by the 336 D. 
This modem offers DSVD - Digital 
Simultaneous Voice and Data which is more 
advanced than the analog counterpart. The 336 
box had no hidden surprises, just the appropri- 
ate cables and CD with drivers, modem software 
and demonstration software. The 336 D box 
comes with an extra phone cord for extending 
from the modem to your handset. Mac packs 
are available for both the 336 and the 336 D and 
cost just Sio more for the Macintosh modem 
cable and the MacComCentre software. 

Netcomm modems are sleek by design, and 
their flat, long and thin appearance has been 
retained through many years of upgrades from 
the early Netcomm SmartModems. The 336 
only offers the one RJ-11 port at the rear, and no 
piggy-back phone cable means that no phone 
can be attached unless you have your own dou- 
ble adaptor. Both of the modems have a front 
panel which opens to expose the dip-switches 
and on the 336 D this is where you find the 
Talk/ Data mode button (it also exists on the 336 
but does not operate anything). 

The Netcomm Smartmodem 336 and 336D 
transferred files in basically the same time as 
each other. They are the same modem internally, 
except for the fact that one of them supports 
DSVD as well as being equipped with the latest 
in DSP chipset technology. The SmartModems 
DSP coupled with the Motorola CPU enable 
compression ratio’s of up to 8:1, enabling the 
modems to transfer files at a potential 230k bps, 
or in simple term over a megabyte every minute. 


Netcomm MemoryModem 

IWWWJ 

This is yet another new innovation from 
Netcomm. This modem can be scheduled to 
operate without you being there, or alternatively 
you can leave the office and turn off your com- 
puter, and the modem will store any faxes that 
come when you (and your computer) are 
unavailable. This is the perfect modem for the 
Home Office, although the price tag is still in 
the eelitei range. 

Connecting was not a problem with either of 
the hosts, and data transfers were efficient. It is 
hard to see that this modem has much more 
application than the unattended home office 
however - it does not offer SVD which for the 
price you would pay today for a MemoryModem 
you could get a SmartModem with DSVD. 


Spirit Cobra 336 Voice 

B 

Spirit modems have not been known to be the 
most aesthetically pleasing units, but the Cobra 
336 changes all of that. This modem would be 
the one of the larger of the modems to grace my 



com port, its wide appearance somewhat off- 
putting, but it does sit on the top of a mini 
tower without a problem, and the rubber feet 
ensures that it won’t come crashing down. The 
drivers installed very easily and it comes with a 
comprehensive 100+ page manual, and a 
unique keyboard-style power-plug. If there was 
one complaint with this modem it is that the 
power switch on the back left was rather stiff 
and difficult to operate. 

It did not hiccup when connecting to either 
modem, completing the connection in under 15 
seconds. It’s performance was acceptable although 
it didn’t have a minor hiccup when receiving text 
from the Netcomm SmartModem. That minor 
stumble did very little to affect the overall results 
recorded. The Cobra comes with a 2 year warranty 
period which can be extended to 5 years. 


US Robotics Courier 
V. Everything 

■■v.v.v. 

The USR v. Everything modem is larger than 
life. The power-unit is massive, the manual is 
an epic and the modem itself is huge. In fair- 
ness, just like the Spirit Cobra, the modem will 
sit atop a mini-tower PC, or reside comfortably 
on a large desk, but it does need some space. All 
US Robotics modems come with QuickLink II 
fax and data software, and the V. Everything also 
contained a fold-out reference card and the stan- 
dard D.I.Y. phone cable. One piece of paper 
caught my eye, an addendum notifying the user 
not to block the rather large air vent on the top 
of the unit. I was hoping that the grill was for a 
large speaker (it would look in place on the bon- 
net of a V8 Commodore), but this note would 
lead you to think that if this modem was left on 
for long periods of time then you might see 
some performance loss. The modem itself had a 
‘Voice Mode’ button on the front panel, just 
beside a clearly marked and easy to read display, 
but the lack of markings on the back of the 
modem can cause confusion as to what port the 
phone line goes in, and what port the handset 
comes out. The under-side of the modem also 
listed some AT commands, a description of the 
LED’s on the front panel, and a large slider to 
control the speaker volume manually. 


US Robotics Sportster 
Voice External 

The Sportster comes in a small box, and when 
you withdraw the egg-carton packaging you are 
inundated with manuals, internet software and 
various loose papers. Nestled deep into the box 
is a small modem nesting on its RS-232 cable. 
In a fold-out section beside it you find a Do-It- 
Yourself phone cable (you simply need to lock 
the cable into the plug). The transformer is 
extremely large, and will prove cumbersome to 
most power-boards making the neighbouring 
sockets useless. 

The modem itself is mid-small in size, and 

PCIPmsfflQy 


had nothing to stop it from sliding around on 
the desk. The LED’s on the front display were 
small and difficult to read when in use, but the 
clearly marked ports at the rear of the unit made 
for easy installation. The manual supplied was 
fairly limited, but contained everything you need 
to know when it comes to troubleshooting. The 
US Robotics modems are the only 2 in the 
range supplied not to be using one version or 
another of the Rockwell chipset, instead US 
Robotics use their own chips co-designed with 
Texas Instruments. 

When it came to the crunch there were prob- 
lems with both US Robotics modems. If the 
modem connected the first attempt, for some 
reason no data could be transmitted. Other 
times the modem would have to retrain 3 or 4 
times in an attempt to connect at the right 
speed, which it did finally do after about 20-25 
seconds. When files were transmitted during 
this connection they would transfer very slowly, 
and often encounter errors. I cannot say what 
this is due to, but I would say it is largely due to 
the different chipset internally. After some 
experimenting and eventually turning to the 
manual, I issued the initialisation string of 
at&fi&do and it not only connected without any 
sign of the prior problems, but it also trans- 
ferred data as well, if not a little better than 
most of the other modems. Needless to say 
there was no problem in getting the 2 supplied 
US Robotics modems to connect to each other 
‘out of the box’, and when they did they trans- 
ferred data at a very impressive rate. 


US Robotics WorldPort 

PCMCIA 28.8 



The World Port is the other of the laptop 
modems supplied for testing. With the hind- 
sight of the work done on the desktop modems, 
I knew what had to be done when the card fal- 
tered slightly during the connection phase. By 
issuing the same command (at&fi&do) I was 
able to attain a steady connection, although the 
connect sequence was still not perfect. It comes 
complete with Quicklink II MessageCentre for 
Windows and a 200+ page manual. It also con- 
tained a PC card manager software disk. The fit- 
tings for the modem to connect to the phone 
line are a little bulky, and could break if pres- 
sure was applied in the wrong place. 

Once connecting the modem performed up to 
standard, exceeding the 28.8k bps landmark set 
by the chip. Text was a little slower than the 
Hayes to transfer, but this was understandable 
under the test conditions. Unfortunately I was 
unable to test the WorldPort connecting to 
either the Sportster or the Courier. The 
WorldPort PCMCIA cardmodem can also be 
used with mobile phones, and is software 
upgradeable to greater speeds. 



US Robotics Worldport 





US Robotics Courier v. Everything 




The Final Word 

The tests carried out highlighted a view held by 
many punters today - that there is no clear definition 
between any of the modems you can purchase. 
Excluding the Netcomm SmartModem range and the 
Hayes modems, the tests showed that there was a 
minimal difference between a Banksia 
MyFastModem and a Micronica jumbuck SVD (con- 
sidering 20-30 cps difference is at best a split sec- 
ond). It is also fair to say that some of the modems 
during the text transfer had not settled into a con- 
stant rhythm after sending or receiving 1 megabyte, 
a task which took at most 1:55 to complete. Taking 
that into account there would be a minimal average 
CPS change with a larger file. Calling any one of 
these modems a 'winner* is difficult, they are all full- 
featured, option packed and on the whole, very reli- 
able. Obviously the SmartModems and the Hayes 
modems outperformed, but is the extra technology 
at this early stage (are we beyond comparing 
modem communications to 'First crackles of radio’?) 
worth the extra cost? The US Robotics modems per- 
formed as well, if not a little better than the others, 
but that was after time spent fiddling with initialisa- 
tion strings which no one wants to do after purchas- 
ing a modem. US Robotics technical support is very 
helpful and open during office hours, but I have 
been assured that the hours will be increasing very 
soon. The Micronica jumbuck is the cheapest SVO 
option, but the lack of driver disks and meaningful 
documentation was discouraging. In all, I would 
have to say that the overall better modem On light of 
‘The Perfect Modem”) among the group was the 
Banksia WaveSP. As SVO becomes a standard that is 
just about compulsory when purchasing a new 
modem, the WaveSP proved to be a solid package. It 
came complete with everything needed to get start- 
ed and including a CD full of useful and interesting 
software. As usual, *IP something were to go wrong 
with the product, Banksia provide a 5 year warranty 
period on parts and labour, and free technical sup- 
port via their Sydney offices. The WaveSP may lack 
the grunt of the Hayes and Netcomm modems, but 
as an all-in-one kit of high-speed SVD modem, voice 
mail service, fax machine and futl duplex speaker 
phone you cannot turn down the Banksia WaveSP. 
For those wanting a second opinion it would be the 
Hayes Accura MessageModem which performed 
superbly, or if you want to simply download data 
and don’t necessarily want the SVD features present 
in the MessageModem. there is a Hayes Accura that 
does not support SVD for under $200. 

What Does the Future Hold ? 

Modem communication has come along way since 
the creation of the first modem in the late 1970’s, 
and even in the last 5 years we have seen the ‘stan- 
dard* speed increase from 14.4kbps to 33.6kbps. 
lust days Netcomm ago Netcomm announced 
Monday 28th May to be the day they ship their first 
56kbps modem using the US Robotics X2 technolo- 
gy. Upon speaking to US Robotics I am told that 
their 56k modems are imminent. Unlike previous 
modems (where if the speed increased you had to 
buy another modem), all modems purchased today 
are 56k upgradeable, but whether they are hard- 
ware (you send the modem back to the manufactur- 
er) or software (you download a file that updates the 
modem) upgrades depends on the modem brand. 
One thing is for sure, if you jump in now there is a 
world to explore. 


chart comparison continued over... 



Performance vs Netcomm Smartmodem 336 
Performance vs Hayes Optima Business Modem 


Modem 


Compressed File (1050k) 


Send 


Receive 


Text Document (1005k) 


Send 


Receive 


Voice 


Netcomm Smartmodem 336 


O 

O 


Netcomm Smartmodem 336D 


Digital 

Digital 


Netcomm MemoryModem 


O 

O 


Netcomm Roadster Ultra SVD 




Banksia WaveSP 


Banksia MyFastModem 





O 

O 


Dynalink v1433VQE 




Micronica ‘Jumbuck’ 


Avtek MegaModem 336 


O 

O 


Spirit Cobra 




Hayes Accura MessageModem* 


•O 

•o 


Hayes Optima Business Modem 


USR Courier v. Everything** 




USR Sportster 336 Voice** 


GVC Teleport 


O 


USR World Port PCMCIA** 


M4* 


)JIO 

)26 o 


590* 

5828 


Hayes Accura PCMCIA 


P94 

)288 


6190 

6288 


Average CPS 



O 

O 


O 

O 


O 


* Hayes Accura is available both with and without Voice capability 
** speeds attained using at&fl&dO to initialise the modem 

Note - No test was performed for the Hayes Optima BusinessModem 336 as it was the test subject. In the Netcomm comparison I 
was able to use a second SmartModem 336 that was supplied by Netcomm. 

The test averages are not a major indicator as the majority of the modems did not compare in maximum speed to that of the 
Netcomm Smartmodems and the Hayes modems 



^Moderr^^ 

Distributor 

Phone 

Fax 

Technical Support 

Support Hours 

BBS 

Internet I 

Netcomm Smartmodems 

Netcomm Australia 

02 9888 5533 

02 9887 4274 

1800 642 067 

WD + Sat. 

02 9878 3755 

http: //www. netcomm .com . au 

Hayes Modems 

Hayes 

02 9959 5544 

02 9959 5235 

via main number 

BH / WD 

02 9959 5287 

http : //www. hayes . com 

WaveSP/MyFastModem 

Banksia 

02 9418 8566 

02 9418 8112 

02 9418 8566 

WD + Sat. 

02 9418 7693 

http: //www. banksia . com . au 

Jumbuck SAVD 

Micronica 

03 9699 8844 

03 9690 531 1 

via main number 

Customers only 

(customers only) 

http://www.micronica.com.au 

Spirit Cobra 

Mike Bourne Elect. 

02 9906 6666 

02 9906 7777 

via main number ** 

BH/WD 

n/a 

http:/ /www. spiritmodems . com . au 

GVC Teleport 

Lidcam 

02 9922 7066 

02 9922 7071 

via main number 

BH / WD 

n/a 

http://www.globalvillage.com 

Sportster/Courier 

US Robotics 

03 9934 8888 

03 9329 7976 

1800 628 324 

BH/WD 

Not yet online 

http://www.usr.com.au 

V1433VQE 

Askey Australia 

1 800 357 253 

1800 063 962 

1800 653 962 

BH/WD 

n/a 

http://www.dynalink.com.au 

Avtek MegaModem 

Avtek Data Comms. 

02 9888 5333 

02 9878 7478 

9878 7473 

WD + Sat. 


http://www.avtek.com.au 


WD - Weekdays WD+Sat - Weekdays plus limited Saturday hours BH - Business hours 

* Soon to be including limited Weekend support 
** Dick Smith Customers call Dick Smith support 










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*4 




More than just a 



lst-pcrson action gaining - past, present and FUTURE 

by Simon “Groo” Gruer 



hen it comes to 
a feeling of total 
immersion 
whilst playing a 
game on your PC, nothing is quite 
as engrossing as a good ist person 
game. The term “ist person” is 
derived from ist person perspec- 
tive, where the display is taken 
from the players point of view 
(Doom, Quake, etc.) in a 3D envi- 
ronment. You may have heard of 
“3rd person” games, this is where 
the point of view is taken from 
behind the player in the game 
(Fade to Black and Tomb Raider 


hit that the US Army had a special 
training version developed for their 
tank troops in 1981. 

Wolfenstein & Doom 

Many games have since used 
primitive ist person perspective 
but none quite as ground breaking 
as ID Software’s first hit, 
Wolfenstein 3D. With its impres- 
sive 3D engine and its addictive 
gameplay, Wolfenstein 3D was the 
shape of things to come. To date 
nothing has been quite as ground 
breaking as the second release for 
ID software, Doom. Released in 


“Doom clones” sprung up 
overnight as did many poor 
attempts at the ist person genre. 
Dark Forces by LucasArts is 
arguably the best of the First gen- 
eration of Doom clones. 

Enriched by the Star Wars uni- 
verse, Dark Forces showed many 
enhancements over Doom; 
crouching, jumping and the abili- 
ty to look up and down to name a 
few. Its greatest let down was the 
lack of multiplayer mode which 
never made it into the final 
release and ultimately halved its 
lastability. 


even watch peep shows in an adult 
bookshop! No one had ever seen a 
game like this before, that was 
when Quake came along. 

And then there’s Quake... 

Developed by the authors of 
Wolfenstien and Doom, Quake has 
gone and revolutionized the gam- 
ing world as its predecessors had 
done years before. In the short 
time that Quake has been released, 
it has proved itself to be the bench- 
mark by which all other ist person 
games are judged. Where Doom 
and Duke have relied on a games 




are some examples). Any game that 
takes place from the players point 
of view can fall into the category of 
ist person (flight sims, driving 
games, etc), but the real fun begins 
with ist person action games. 

In the beginning 

The history of ist person games 
goes back further than you may 
think. One of the earliest examples 
is “Battlezone”, a first person tank 
game release in 1980 by Atari. 
Battlezone is also one of the first 
true 3D games, using crude 3D 
vectors for its display. It was such a 


1993, Doom sparked a revolution 
in the games industry for its slick 
design and advanced features. It 
was one of the first networkable 
multiplayer games where up to 4 
players could stalk demons togeth- 
er, or stalk each other ;-) Doom 2 
was released shortly after to an 
eager audience. It was considered 
by most to be a letdown, as it was 
mostly cosmetic changes to the 
original Doom (a few new mon- 
sters and weapons). 

As time went by, the success of 
Doom was used as a formula for 
other software houses. The term 


ist Person Games Today 

1996 was the year that saw ist 
person gaming mature to the next 
level of PC gaming. With the advent 
of Pentium Processors, windows 95 
and 3D accelerators, the PC is now a 
gaming platform in its own right. 
We saw the release of the “first true 
Doom beater”, Duke Nukem 3D. 
Boasting depth never seen in a 
video game before, Duke Nukem 
3D took ist person gaming to the 
limits. You could interact with 
almost everything in the games’ 
environment, turn the lights on and 
off, play a game of pool in a bar, 


engine that simulates 3D (the lev- 
els are created from 2D maps), 
Quake uses an engine that creates 
a much more convincing 3D land- 
scape. Quake replaces the hand- 
drawn sprites as used in Doom 
with elaborate 3D characters and 
objects. Quake goes much deeper 
than its good looks, it even comes 
complete with its own program- 
ming language, Quake C. 

Quake C allows users with some 
knowledge of programming to 
manipulate and change the game 
in almost anyway they want. With 
Quake C you can create new 









weapons, change the behaviour of 
the monsters, even create your 
own vehicles to ride on. If you 
have access to the internet you 
can download some examples of 
Quake C that people from all over 
the world have done. One of the 


Quake is indeed the biggest ist 
person game around right now ,and 
other software houses know it. The 
Quake engine has been licensed out 
to no less than six developers - 
including Raven for the soon to be 
released Hexen 2 and 3D Realms for 


generation ist person games will 
use them to their full potential. 
The future does look bright for 
ist person games, here’s a run- 
down of some games to look out 
for in the near future: 


Hexen 2 will include 4 distinctive 
character classes: Paladin, 
Necromancer, Crusader and 
Assassin (this will be a female 
character). It will also use features 
seen in the original Hexen, like 
the hub system, where you can 



most awesome uses of Quake C is 
the soon to be released “Quake 
Rally”. Developed right here in 
Australia, Quake Rally promises 
to turn Quake as we know it into 
a totally new game, putting you 
behind the wheel of a customised 
rally car. 


their next instalment in the Duke 
Nukem saga, Duke Nukem Forever. 

THE FUTURE 

This coming year promises to 
be big for ist person games. With 
3D accelerators quickly becoming 
mainstream, most of the next 


Hexen 2 

In a few months we should see 
the release of the first game to 
use the “enhanced” Quake 
engine, Hexen 2. Utilising 
enhancements such as translucent 
polygons and rotating brushes, 
Hexen 2 looks like a real winner. 


backtrack through previously 
explored levels. And of course, it 
will offer the same depth and flex- 
ibility that Quake has offered via 
Quake C (or will it be Hexen C?), 
not to mention the fact that you 
will be able to play with at least 16 
people via the internet or LAN. 


Multiplayer gaming 

Doom started a trend with multiplayer 1st 
person gaming, giving players a chance to 
test their skills with up to 4 players via LAN. 
Now with the Internet and multiplayer 
games servers connecting players from all 
over the world, now is the time to get into 
multiplayer gaming. Quake has lead the way 
with multiplayer gaming utilising a revolu- 
tionary client/server system. Where games 
like Duke Nukem 3D require an exact number 
of players to form a game, Quake lets play- 
ers join and leave established games when- 
ever they like. Quake has also maximised the 
amount of players that can be in a multi- 
player game. Specifically designed with the 
Internet in mind, QuakeWorld can support 
up to an amazing 32 players at a time! 

Future games such as Unreal and Jedi Knight 
promise to have a similar multiplayer system. 
Playing over the Internet 
If you have a good connection to the 
Internet, then you can start playing multi- 
player games. If you have Quake, you can 
use a utility called QSpy, a program used to 



find Quake servers on the Internet. You can 
also play some of the older favourites such 
as Doom 1 G 2, but you will need a utility to 
simulate a LAN network. Kali is a utility 
specifically designed for playing multiplayer 
games over the Internet. When you connect 
to a Kali server you can organise games with 
other players currently on the same server. 
Although it can be a lot of fun, playing 
games over the Internet can be sometimes 
very slow because of the amount of informa- 
tion that 1st person games send and receive. 


Local game servers 

A new alternative to playing over the 
Internet are local games servers where you 
dial directly into a dedicated games net- 
work. These servers have the advantage of 
fast and reliable gameplay and are a great 
place to meet lots of new people. One such 
games server is Digital UnderGround (DUG), 
based in the Sydney area. You dial in to the 
DUG network with a handy client program 
called the Digital UnderGround Interactive 
Explorer (DuglE). This client program lets you 
navigate the network with ease and lets you 
chat with other users, download files, send 
email and much more. In the coming months 
we should see a lot of local servers like this 
one popping up all over Australia, they are 
the future of multiplayer gaming. 

Related Internet links: 

http://www.quakespy.com 

http://www.kali.net 

http://www.dug.com 

http://www.stargatenetworks.com 

http://www.multiplay.com.au 







This is Quake 2. ID showed their lax 
attitude to sequels with Doom 2, 
let's hope Quake 2 is more than just 
another mission pack 




3D Realms 9 forthcoming gome, Prey , will utilise ID Software's Quake 2 engine. A late 1998 release is scheduled 


Unreal 

No other ist person game (with 
the exception of Quake) has gener- 
ated as much hype and excitement 
as Unreal, the soon to be released 
ist person shooter from Epic 
Megagames. Unreal promises to 
be leaps and bounds ahead of 


Unreal will use motion capture 
techniques on its characters and 
monsters creating a more fluid, 
lifelike effect. Even though the 
game is not yet completed (the 
developers aim for a September 97 
release date), the Unreal engine 
has already been licensed to 


Prey & Duke Nukem Forever 

There is not too much informa- 
tion on this next generation ist per- 
son game by the makers of Duke 
Nukem 3D, but like most software 
developers, 3D Realms have a lot of 
faith in their product. As the story 
goes, you are Talon Brave, a full 


With 3D Realms developing Prey 
as their next “big thing” in the ist 
person games scene, it came as 
quite a shock when they announced 
that the up coming sequel to Duke 
Nukem 3D will be developed using 
ID software's Quake 2 engine. Why 
did they use another company’s 3D 



Quake in the graphics department. 
Where the lighting in Quake levels 
is pre-calculated, Unreal boasts 
true multicoloured light sourcing. 
Even though the characters in 
Quake are 3D, they still have indi- 
vidual animated frames not unlike 
the hand drawn sprites of Doom, 


Microprose for their upcoming ist 
person adventure “Star Trek: First 
Contact”. Unreal has certainly 
made a few waves in the 3D gam- 
ing community, boasting to be the 
first real “Quake Killer” is a bold 
statement, time will tell if this 
turns out to be true. 


blooded American Indian who is 
sucked into a science fiction adven 
ture of galactic proportions (their 
words, not mine!). The proposed 
specs on Prey are quite handsome, 
i6bit colour, full radiosity lighting 
and 3DRealms own “Portal 
Technology” engine. 


engine when they are in the middle 
of completing their own? Head of 
3D Realms, George Broussard, 
responds: "It’s a very good question, 
but we have a very good answer. Our 
Prey technology is predicated on 3D 
hardware, such as the 3DFX card 
and the Rendition card. Prey will not 


3D accelerators 

With 1st person gomes now starting to 
use cutting edge 3D technology, most of 
these games will utilise a piece of hard- 
ware that is set to become commonplace 
in all PC’s, 3D accelerators. These power- 
ful pieces of hardware can turn support- 
ed games (like Quake) into an amazing 
visual experience. Currently there are two 
major 3D chipsets commonly used in the 
most popular 3D cards, Verite and 3Dfx. 
Both offer advanced 3D features like 
anti-aliasing, Z-buffering and bi-linear 
filtering which can only be done effi- 
ciently with the use of 3D accelerators. 
Quake in overdrive 

Although there are many games that have 
utilised 3D accelerators already, none are 
quite as impressive as Quake. Verite Quake 
(as used by the 3D Blaster card) was the 
first 3D accelerated version of Quake. 

Verite Quake accelerates Quake consider- 
ably ond removes jagged edges and pixeli- 



sation via anti-aliasing. The 3Dfx chipset 
(as used by the Monster3D and Righteous3D 
cards) uses OpenGL to enhance Quake and 
has even more features that Verite Quake. 
GLQuake (as it’s commonly known) supports 
effects like transparent water, dynamic 
shadows and coloured lighting all of which 
can be turned on and off via the console. 
Quake is definitely seen at its best while 
played on a 3D accelerator. 


Next generation 3D 

3D accelerators are set to become com- 
pulsory with new 1st person gomes widely 
supporting them. Almost all of the soon 
to be released 1st person games support 
3D acceleration. Prey, the next big game 
from 3D Realms will be a ”3Dfx only” 
game, demonstrating the faith 3D Realms 
has in 3D accelerators. A number of hard- 
ware vendors have started to develop 
and release their own 3D cords. NEC have 
entered the market their Apocalypse 3D, 
using the Power VR chipset. With all 
these new cards using different 3D tech- 
nology it’s hard to choose which one is 
best, only time will tell which one of 
these cards will be a worthy addition to 
your computer system. 

Related Internet links: 
http: //www. 3dfx.com 
http://www.creative.com 
http://www.cam.org/ 

-ogena/g lquake.html 








jedi Knight sees the player using the Force, just like Luke Skywalker. Hopefully his haircut isn’t a Jedi standard 


work without the current best 3D 
cards on the market. When Prey is 
released late in 1998 only then do 
we believe there will be enough of 
an installed base to support sales of 
a high-end 3D hardware game.” 

Jedi Knight: Dark Forces 2 

When it was released almost 2 
years ago, Dark Forces gave gamers 
a chance to battle against the Empire 
and a host of characters as seen in 
the Star Wars films. Its’ biggest criti- 
cism was the absence of multiplay 
mode, which marred its lastability. 
This year will see the arrival of what 
could possibly be the most popular 
game of 1997, Jedi Knight: Dark 
Forces 2. Reprising the role of 
Imperial defector Kyle Katam, play- 


ers will now have to learn the ways 
of the Force in order to stop a pow- 
erful Dark Jedi named Jerec and his 
six minions. As Katam leams the 
arts of the Jedi - including levitating 
objects, acrobatics, seeing through 
walls, healing and, most important- 
ly, the use of a lightsaber - he will 
have to decide which side of the 
Force to lend his powers. With an 
engrossing story line, a 3D engine to 
rival Quake, 8 player network and of 
course the Star Wars universe, this 
looks like the game that just might 
knock Quake off its high pedestal. 

Quake 2 

ID Software have proved them- 
selves to be the undisputed king of 
1st person games, a title that they 


have kept since their first game, 
Wolfenstien 3D. With Quake already 
proving itself to be one of the 
biggest PC games of all time, the 
sequel will have to be something 
special. ID are keeping very tight 
lipped about exactly what will set the 
sequel apart from its predecessor, 
but it seems it will be more of a 
sequel than Doom 2 was to doom. 
Thanks to technology learned from 
the development of Quake, Quake 2 
will have an even more realistic feel 
and look about it incorporating 
improved lighting techniques. From 
the level of depth displayed in the 
few screenshots that have been 
released and software houses already 
licensing the Quake 2 technology 
even before it’s fully completed, it 


3D world 

Back in the good olde days of Doom (well, 
it seems a long time ago) the standard 
method of control was simply to use the 
keyboard, which was fine considering the 
limited number of controls. Now as next 
generation games like Quake and Duke 
Nukem 3D give much more freedom of 
movement (the ability to jump, look up 
and down, etc) the humble keyboard just 
isn’t dynamic enough to move around effi- 
ciently in a 3D world. The revolution of 1st 
person games has spawned a number of 
new and innovative joysticks and con- 
trollers to help us navigate 3D environ- 
ments. Here are just a few controllers to 
get to grips with: 

Wingman Warrior 
Made by Logitech, a 
hardware company well M 

known for their quality mice 
and joysticks, the Wingman 
Warrior is a formidable ^ 
controller. Looking 

like a standard flight ( 

sim joystick, it claims 
to be the first con- 
troller specifically 

designed with 1 st < 

person games in mind. 

With your right hand grip- 
ping the joystick, your left hand is used to 
twist a large red knob and a smaller grey 
dial. Aptly named Logitech Spin Control, 


^ " F 

■■ifeqr.imm.ibli- 

buttons 


this spinning red knob gives you greater 
control in a 3D environment that a stan- 
dard joystick. Overall the Wingman Warrior 
is a very good controller, the only down- 
side is you can only grip the joystick with 
your right hand (which is a bummer for 
lefties, like me). 

Sidewinder 3D Pro 

Microsoft, better jLwr ^ 

known for software, 
recently entered the 
gome controller mar- 5 ^ 

ket with their series 
of ’’Sidewinder” con- 
trollers. The Sidewinder 3D Pro is well suit- 
ed for flight sim type games but its 
advanced features make it appealing for 
use with 1 st person games as well. The 
stick itself twists left and right (perfect 
for strafing) and it comes with its own 
throttle control on the base. Not only does 
it have a 4-way hat switch and four fire 
buttons on the stick, but it has an extra 
four programable buttons on the base. If 
you’re looking for a good all-round joystick 
with 1 st person games in mind, you can’t 
go far wrong with the Sidewinder 3D Pro. 
SpoceOrb 3 60 

This has to be one of the most innovative 
game controllers ever created for the PC. 
Designed by Spacetec, a company that 
develops 3D navigation tools for high end 
CAD users, the SpoceOrb 360 is the perfect 
controller for use with 1 st person games. 
Sporting a unique ’’powersensor” orb that 
can be pushed, pulled and twisted; it also 


W 


looks like ID will be able to keep 
their crown. Rumours say there will 
be no shareware version, but we can 
look forward to a December 1997 
release. I know what I'll be asking 
Santa for this Christmas! ;-) 

View to a kill 

As you can see, 1st person games 
are quickly earning the reputation 
as being one of the most popular 
forms of computer games today, 
and rightfully so. Nothing is more 
challenging and exciting than play- 
ing a game taken from the point of 
view of the player, and with so 
many new titles to look forward to 
it’s obvious that this is the type of 
game that people will be playing 
into the next century, and beyond. 


has six buttons 
and software 0^ 

to make it pro- / F 
grammable. / 

Because of its Nfcr;. 

revolutionary 

design, it 

takes a little while to get the hang of. If 
you want to go forward, you push the ball 
forward, if you want to turn left, you twist 
the ball left, and so on. The only real draw- 
backs is the fact that it requires its own 
serial port but overall it is one of the best 
3D controllers on the market. 

The cheap alternative 
If a new joystick is a little too expensive 
or you just can’t decide which one to buy, 
you just can’t go past a keyboard and 
mouse combination. You can use your 
mouse to turn left and right and look up 
and down while using the keyboard to 
move forward and backward and strafe 
from side to side. 1 st person games such 
as Duke Nukem 3D or Quake are perfect 
for controlling with a mouse and keyboard 
combination. So if you want to save 
money, try out your humble mouse as your 
controller of choice before you consider 
buying a new controller. 

Related Internat links: 

http://www.logitech.com 
http: //www. microsoft.com 
http://www.spacetec.com/WEB_SITE/PROD- 
UCTS/360/f rames. html 




This month in 3D 
technews there’s more hardware to 
contend with then ever before. It’s 
actually starting to look like there 
are more 3D accelerators and 
enhancements to existing accelera- 
tors out there then there are titles 
for them. Which actually might 
just be the truth! 

The latest report from J PA (a mar- 
ket research and publishing firm 
tracking digital media technologies) 
has shown that the 3D Market is the 
fastest growing segment in semi- 
conductor industry, with over 150% 
growth expected in 1997. 

Now everyone wants one... 

At the recent Computer Game 
Developer’s Conference in Santa 
Clara, jPA announced that it pre- 
dicts 42 million 3D graphics chips 
will ship into the PC market in 
1997, U P fr° m nearly 16 million 
chips in 1996. Report findings 
suggest that at current projected 
growth rates, the 3D market will 
double in 1998 to over 80 million 
chips, and by 2000 the number 
will be over 140 million. 


Total 3 D Desktop Chip Shipments 

Year Millions of 3D graphics chips 

1996 

*5 

r 997 

42 

1998 

8a H 

1999 

II 4 

2000 

142 


JPA continued to say that manufac- 
turers are driving technology up, and 
prices down very quickly because the 
stakes are so high. In a couple of 
years 3D graphics will be as ubiqui- 
tous as 2D and colour is today, and 
no chip vendor wants to miss out on 
having a piece of this market. 

The study also stated that 3D 
graphics chips are the fastest grow- 
ing market segment in the PC 
business. But hey, even without a 
study, we’ve been telling you that 
here at PC PowerPlay for the last 
10 months... 


PC games for $1 a pop 

So, where does all this new Intel 
grunt go? Surprisingly into, wait 
for it... arcade machines! Intel have 



is the ideal comple- 
ment for Pentium II 
systems as the 
increase in processor 
power will automati- 
cally increase the 
graphics performance 
of 3D RAGE PRO 
boards and chips. 

The Pentium II/3D 
RAGE PRO will 
allegedly rival work- 
station-class computing resulting in 
the fastest 2D, highest 3D perfor- 
mance, and best video acceleration. 
These are bold claims indeed and 
ones PowerPlay will look forward to 
proving/disproving. 

The 3D RAGE PRO with the 
Pentium II MMX will support 
DVD multimedia and visual dis- 
play. Utilising an on-chip motion 
compensation accelerator, 
DVD/MPEG 2 frame rate will 
improve by 30%, removing the 
need to buy expensive hardware for 
MPEG-2 and DVD playback. 


of the chip include 
Diamond 


ing, the GLINT MX supports up to 
70 Mbytes of texture and frame- 
buffer memory, allowing board 
designers to support extremely 
high-resolution, true-colour dis- 
plays providing high-capacity on- 
board texture storage. Designs con- 
taining i6Mbytes of framebuffer 
memory allow 32 bit true-colour 
and double-buffered displays up to 
a resolution of 1600x1200. 

But wait, there’s more. The 
chipset also supports HDTV reso- 
lution displays that run at a hori- 
zontal resolution of 1920 pixels 
within a linear framebuffer. The 
GLINT MX-based boards are the 
only professional 3D processor on 
the PC that can drive the new gen- 
eration of high-resolution HDTV 
displays. Someone bring me some 
water, I feel faint! 

GLINT MX-based boards and sys- 
tems are expected to start shipping in 
volume in the second half of 1997. 


Voodoo Rush available now 

Here at the offices of PC 
PowerPlay we have finally replaced 
our much beloved 3D Blaster with 
a more practical card. The 
Hercules Stingray 128/3D is a 128- 
bit 2D/3D graphics and multime- 
dia accelerator combining _three_ 
high performance graphics proces- 
sors on a single board. 

The Hercules Stingray 128/3D 
combines Alliance Semiconductor’s 
and the 3Dfx Voodoo Rush chip 
onto an excellently designed 
Hercules’ board. By integrating the 
128-bit Alliance ProMotion AT3D 
2D/3D graphics and multimedia 
processor with the 3Dfx Voodoo 
Rush and 6MB of EDO DRAM is a 
single slot solution, the Hercules 
Stingray 128/3 D gives us back a 
well needed PCI slot. 


announced a hardware specifica- 
tion for coin-operated video games 
based on the Pentium II processor. 

Intel P2 arcade machines will 
utilise open architecture PCs that 
enhance the arcade experience 
with new features such as multi- 
player interaction and Internet 
access. Games in the running so 
far include Home Run Derby, a 
baseball simulation, Canyon 
Runner, a multiplayer race game 
with futuristic, armed aircraft, and 
a flight simulator. 

By writing for the Intel 
Architecture-based platform, devel- 
opers may create games for 
arcades with the knowledge that 
similar performance levels will 
later be available in home comput- 
ers. This opportunity encourages 
creative, new types of games and 
eliminates the crappy arcade con- 
version blues. 

With the P2 accelerated Graphics 
Port and advanced 3D graphics con- 
trollers, the Intel Architecture PC 
will deliver the 3D, graphics and 
video performance that players 
expect in an arcade game. We 
translated that to mean: “We’re 
actually just sticking a 3Dfx into a 
P2 PC and drilling a coin slot in it”. 

Coin-operated systems based on 
the P2 are expected to be in 
arcades by the end of the year. 


V " 


Permedia GLINT MX - 
3D accelerator supreme 

For the TRUE 3D aficionado out 
there, a new high-end member of 
the GLINT family has become 
available called the GLINT MX. 
Designed to take advantage of the 
Pentium II vendors 









mm 


* 


Intel approves ATI 3D 
RAGE PRO for Pentium II 

Just when you thought nothing 
more could possibly be happening 
for the Pentium II, ATI 
Technologies have optimised the 
3D RAGE PRO graphics accelerator 
chips for said processor. A massive 
feather in their caps, Intel 
announced that the 3D RAGE PRO 


Multimedia, ELSA, 
Omnicomp Graphics 
Corporation, Radius 
and Symmetric (an 
STB Company). 

This truly amazing 
piece of 3D hard- 
ware, being fully 
scalable, allows up to 
eight GLINT MX 
processors to be used in parallel to 
provide some of the fastest rasteri- 
sation performance available on the 
PC platform today. For example, a 
twin GLINT MX board can display 
up to 2 million “visible polygons 
per second” and provides a textur- 
ing rate of up to 55 million pixels 
per second with full per-pixel mip- 
mapping and high quality texture 
filtering. 

But if you thought that was amaz- 


PowerPlay 





This is not a photo. 
Flying Nightmares 2 


Ik 



The Hercules Stingray 128/3D 
also supports an advanced set of 
video acceleration features in hard- 
ware, including YUV/RGB colour 
space conversion, scaling, and a 64 
step bilinear filter with full line 
buffer to provide exceptionally 
crisp, smoothly filtered, 30 fps full- 
screen/full-motion video playback. 

Take careful note, a 64 step bilin- 
ear filter for video is not possible on 
a standard 3D6C. Hercules however 
have managed to successfully not 
only combine technologies from 
both chipsets on their card, but to 
also utilise the additional functions 
of a standard MMX PC, not a P2 
like the ATI. The optimised soft- 
ware MPEG player that ships with 
the card will support MPEG-i and 
MPEG-2 DVD playback. 

Special mention must be made of 
the card’s installation routine - this 
is possibly the easiest video in the 
known universe to install! We put 
the card in its slot, inserted the 
Hercules CD when prompted and 
that was it. Everything - utilities, 
DirectX - the lot, installed seam- 
lessly and we didn’t even have to 
press ENTER once. Beautiful. 


PowerVR 2 

As we reported last month, 
VideoLogic announced the immi- 
nent release of the new NEC 
Power VR 2 called the 3DX. The 
Power VR 1 was proven faster then 
the 3Dfx, but without bi-linear fil- 
tering was largely ignored by buy- 
ers. The new Power VR 2 however, 
will feature everything the 3Dfx 
can do, plus a number of new and 
exciting features. 

Videologic realising they have a 
3Dfx killer on their hands are now 
offering to upgrade any 3Dfx 
Voodoo owner to a VideoLogic 
Apocalypse 3DX for only US $130. 
We never said the 3D accelerator 
business wouldn’t get nasty. Of 


course, we’re of the opinion that 
the Power VR, being versatile 
enough to run with any other 3D 
accelerator, would be fine to be 
used in tandem with your 3Dfx. 
Keep reading for a review of the 
Power VR 2 soon! 


Software 

Tomb Raider for the Mystique 
Although a little late, Matrox 
have announced a new software 
patch which provides Mystique 
3D hardware acceleration for 
Eidos Interactive’s Tomb Raider. 
The patch for the retail product 
is now available for free down- 
load on the Matrox Graphics web 
site (www.matrox.com), 3D 
Gaming section. 

Rated one of the hottest 3D titles 
of the year, Matrox believe the 
Mystique enhanced Tomb Raider’s 
is the bees knees. Not featuring 
bilinear filtering, it does however 
get up to 30 frames per second at 
640 x 480 with higher res textures. 

Goman 

Goman, a new D3D title from 
lesser known company Tek-47 has 
just been released as a demo. 
Although the complete game won't 
be ready for a while, the taste we’ve 
had here does make for something 
to definitely look forward to. 

Goman allows every Manga fan 
to live out their every fantasy. Well 
ok, not every fantasy, but if a big 
bulky versatile super powerful 
robotech is your kind of thing, 
then this is TH E game. 

You take control of Goman, a 
famous Japanese manga character 
from the comic of ummm, 
Goman??? Anyway, your job is to 
protect a city from Godzilla style 
monsters by direct confrontation. 
Totally cool features include a pop- 
ulation counter. If you aren’t 


watching what your doing and 
take your fight into the city, not 
only will the monster walk 
through and topple buildings, but 
if you’re knocked back, your own 
impact will destroy buildings as 
well. The more destruction, the 
more population dies. Too few 
people and you lose! 

This games perfectly represents 
the battles as portrayed in Manga 
cartoons such as Robotech. Within 
the great mechanical sentry, you 
can fly forward, Jump incredibly 
high, use side rockets to strafe left 
and right, spin and crouch into a 
totally cool martial arts position. 
Attack with helmet lasers, plasma 
shurikens giant plasma swords, 
shields or a massive energy blast. 

For the ultimate manga experience, 
jump in the air spin around and as 
your coming down on the victim 
unleash the plasma sword to dice 
him into monster mince. 

3Dfx, Rendition and Power VR 
2 players will be treated to a truly 
visual feast as high res 640x480 
graphics run at about 20 fps and 
all the weapon and jet effects are 
rendered in a beautifully trans- 
parent glowing effect like in 
Wipeout 2097. 

Flying Nightmares 2 
There’s one thing that just 
screams out for 3D accelerated tech- 
nology: Flight sims! To date howev- 
er, except for the elusive “we’re only 
including it in EF2000 V2.0 now” 
EF2000 graphics-i- patch and the 
even more elusive “is it really going 
to happen” Jet Fighter 3 patch, noth- 
ing has been done. 

Thank the heavens then for Eidos 
interactive (the people who made 
the awesome Tomb Raider), 
because Flying Nightmares 2 is 
coming and NOTHING can pre- 
pare you for the awesomeness of 
this game. 

It’s essentially the continuation 
of the very popular Harrier AV-8B 
simulation, but now you get to 
choose between an AV-8B 2+ or a 
Cobra chopper. With support for 
the 3Dfx and Rendition based 
cards (as well as the other cards 
supported by Tomb 
Raider), nothing can 
compare you for the 
level of graphical 
detail this game 
offers. Just take a 
look at the screen- 
shots! 

Features of the 
game include Virtual 
Cockpits, 16-bit 
(65,000-color) high- 
resolution texture- 


mapped graphics. TCP/IP net- 
working allowing Macs and PCs to 
hook up in multiplayer games. The 
multiplayer capabilities however 
are one of the biggest surprises. 

Each team has one designated 
Team Commandant responsible 
for placement and direction of 
“Non-Player” units, and overall 
conduct of the battle in a style 
exact to C&C. The other “Pilot 
Players” participate in the battle 
primarily from the cockpits of 
their assigned aircraft, as they 
receive orders from Team 
Commandants from a first-person 
perspective and watch the NPU’s 
duke it out around them. 

From the Ready Room, each 
Team Commandant views a real- 
time overhead map of the battle- 
field, seeing the engagement 
unfold as each unit detects and 
engages the enemy forces. The 
radio dialogue box shows colour- 
coded messages from the “Non- 
Player” units, as well as communi- 
cation from the “Pilot Players” cur- 
rently flying aircraft. Every unit can 
be selected and assigned destina- 
tions, targets, or dispositions with 
a few simple mouse clicks. 

Other Players not currently flying 
aircraft can also view the battle 
from the Ready Room, scanning 
the battlefield for targets and help- 
ing the Team Commandant keep 
the situation under control. 

The Team Commandant can 
issue orders to “airborne” players 
with simple mouse clicks, or ver- 
bose text messages. Navigation 
routes can be entered and changed 
in real-time, and “warnings” can 
be issued quickly when an unex- 
pected contingency arises. 

Other options include camou- 
flage, ground units that can hide 
and entrench, Calling up reinforce- 
ments, or capturing enemy air- 
fields (complete with their aircraft 
and supplies). Full internet, allow- 
ing FN2 players from around the 
world to join your Team. Send 
your friends on suicide missions 
against impossible odds! 

Jere Lawrence 


More Flying Nightmares 2 



PowerPlay 


89 




This technology has 
obvious drawbacks - 
a phone's anonimity 
acn be advantageous 


like pipes filling with 
water to their limits 
until eventually every- 
one only gets a trickle. 
This is the bandwidth 
problem, it’s quite a 
big one at that. 

Which leads to the 
ultimate question. 
With a global network 



^ Home Video 
Conferencing 





\ ■ |lie Internet is a strange, 

strange beast indeed. Here at 

-L our finger tips lies one of the 
most powerful computer structures 
mankind has ever built. Machines, 
from around the world, connected 
by powerful digital links 
allowing masses of data 
to find their way across 
oceans and land to any 
destination. Most likely 
your home. 

It is truly amazing to 
this writer that the com- 
mon man on the street has embraced 
this technology so. Let’s face it, our 
small unlimited access ISP and 28.8 
modems barely pull the data in fast 
enough. Like never before, we sit and 
wait patiently for the data to come 
in... painfully slowly. 


#1 Need: Bandwidth 

In a humorous twist of irony, it is 
the popularity that cripples the 
speed. As people login to experi- 
ence the Net, most likely the Web, 
the data they pull pushes the links, 


struggling to feed 
data to the individuals 
that use it, why do 
companies keep on 
spending so much 
money developing data-intensive 
applications that just make every- 
thing so much slower? 

The best answer is faith. They're 
developing for the future. Right 
now, so few of us have the equip- 
ment that can effectively utilise the 
power that these applications have to 
offer. For that reason, we’re going to 
take a serious and realistic look at 
communications across the Internet. 


Virtual CB radio 

In the beginning 
there was Usenet. 
Newsgroups to 
most. This text 
based means of 
communication is 
still one of the most 
popular forms of 
interaction on the 
net. It’s not immedi- 
ate. When people 
post their messages 
for the world to see, 
it could take as long 
as a day for the data 


viduals time and effort. The Net, 
being a haven for the computer 
elite, allows university students 
and the inventive to collectively 
share their knowledge and create 
together. Thus, applications are 
born that try and echo, indeed 
advance what we use in the ana- 
logue world. But is it practical? 

This expensive & complex 
technology is also excellent if you 
forget what you look like 


individual, but that’s the problem. 
Only with an individual. The first 
program to ever address live real 
time global conversations was IRC 
- Internet Relay chat. 

This system involved people from 
all around the word connecting to a 
common server where individuals 
would input their statements and it 
would be echoed to thousands in 
real time across the planet. It was 
live, it was fast, it was exciting, it 
allowed individuals to carry on con- 
versations and romances in real 
time, it was text based. 

The Net knew its limitations, 
modems that link millions of 
users slowly exhaust 
its resources. Text is 
fast and efficient, but 
not necessarily 
human. For decades 
we’d had phones that 
allowed fast full 
duplex audio conversa- 
tion, but now we had 
regressed back to a 


typed form of communication. 
Better than morse code, yet still 
strangely similar. 

With the ability to create so eas 
ily on a computer, new software 
is only a matter of a clever indi- 


□J 


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Mirabilis ICQ 

Before we step out 
onto the brave new 
frontier that is digital audio and 
video communications across the 
Net. The first real problem that 
many address is “How do I find 
someone to talk to?", or “How do 



munications programs 
such as Iphone, 
Netmeeting, CuSeeme, 
Webphone and many 
others. What this 
means is that when you login, if 
there is a friend of yours online that 
you wish to contact, you need only 
click his name and request the type 
of communication. The program on 



must first circumnavi- 
gate the world io 
times before reaching 
its destination. This 
makes for a strange 
delay between the 
originators sentence 



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1 know when I can talk to a 
friend of mine?”. 

An annoying reality about the 
Net is that when you want to speak 
to a friend. If they’re in the same 
city, you generally find yourself 
ringing them on a conventional 
phone, asking if they 
want to “chat”, hang- 
ing up and calling 
them across the Net. 

Practical huh? 

A very, very clever 
program indeed has 
addressed this prob- 
lem beautifully. Called 
ICQ by the Mirabilis 
company, it allows 
you to search for peo- 
ple by their first and 
last name. When you 
find someone that you 
know, you add them 
to your personal list. Now, whenev- 
er they login you get an audio alarm 
and at a glance, you can see who is 
and who isn’t on. 

Easily the most useful piece of soft- 
ware on the Net yet, it even has 
embedding for external digital com- 



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your end will launch 
and at the other parties 
approval, start the 
same application. 

Voila, communication 
has started very easily. 

Iphone 

This is the 
program that 
started it all. 

Essentially the 
first program to allow vocal 
communications across the 
Net, it came out when 14.4 
modems were still the go. It 
was revolutionary, unique 
and initiated promise for the 
future. As an application, at ver- 
sion 4 Iphone is a 
swish product indeed. 

Iphone does defi- . 
nitely allow for voice 
communication to 
occur over the Net. 
But not like a phone. 
The first obstacle that 
has to be addressed 
is that unless both 
parties have a full 
duplex sound card, 
only one person can 
speak at a time. Just 
like a CB radio. It 
hardly makes for a 
flowing conversation. 

There’s also a certain delay as the 
packets make their way from 
source to destination. The Internet 
unwritten IP rules apply here as 
well. You know the one (tongue 
firmly in cheek), that an IP packet 



and your answer. 

There are also a few more obsta- 
cles to overcome. Iphone streams 
its data to the recipient. It’s the 
only way something as intensive as 
vocal communications can be dealt 
with. What this 
means is that if 
you have an 
Internet con- 
nection that is 
prone to packet 
loss, the per- 
sons voice will 
come in 
scratchy at first 
and ultimately 
with entire gaps missing from it. 
There’s no solution to this either, 
except to get a better ISP. 

But it’s not all doom and gloom. 
There are some definite advantages 
to Iphone as well. The first one of 
course is the cost. If you have an 
unlimited access ISP, 
you can call anyone in 
the world for the cost 
of a local call. Any rel- 
ative or friend over- 
seas with just a com- 
puter and an ISP you 
can talk to for as long 
as you like. Let's see 
Telstra and Optus 
match that. 

Finally, Iphone is a 
rather social pro- 
gram as well. 

Whenever you start 
the program, the 
first thing it does is 
to log you into a 



server that brings up a list of peo- 
ples names and topics. By simply 
double clicking a name, the sys- 
tem attempts to “dial” the person. 
If they’re already talking, a stan- 
dard busy signal is heard. 

If you get through, suddenly 
you’re speaking to a total stranger, 
on another side of the world. 
Conversations are often interesting 
and fun. If you connect to the 
opposite gender, they can be even 
more fun... 

Iphone also allows for a commu- 
nal white board to be used. It is 



$ 

1 ^ 

1 

JL 

1 sj 

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common practice for I phone chat 
to become a kind of digital dating 
service. People talk via voice and if 
they have a digital camera or a 
scanner, put pictures of themselves 
up on the whiteboard. 

Overall, I phone is an excellent 
product, the best one out there actu- 
ally. We still need more bandwidth, 
full duplex modems and the ability 
for multiple parties. It's fun to use 
now and practical to talk to a family 
member or friend cheaply. With no 
need for additional hardware and at 
a good price, it's a welcome addition 
to the Internet suite of applications. 

Home Video 
Conferencing 
2 solutions tested 

On to the big kahuna of Internet 
bandwidth intensive applications. 
Video Conferencing. We had 2 
cards at our disposal and put them 
through as fair a test as we could. 

In this situation, 2 PC PowerPlay 
techs dialled into the same ISP. This 
had to be done because quite simply, 
using a modem, video conferencing 
is impractical and barely useable 
across the net. We communicated 
for 2 hours straight with each card 
to give it more then enough time to 
stabilise the codecs (compression 
decompression algorithms). 



Just about anyone can figure out 
Creative's webphone 


[CREATIVE LflBs| 

The Creative Labs Video confer- 
encing kit consists of 2 items. The 
Creative Labs Video Blaster and 
the Creative Camera. 

Video Blaster IE SOO PCI. 
Price : $499 

Formats: NTSC, PAL-B/G, Secam 
and SVHS 

Camera format: NTSC Colour 
Driver Support: Twain compatible 

Maximum Video resolution: 320 x 

240 

Maximum Frame rate: 3ofps 
Maximum Colour depth: 24 bit 
Maximum Resolution: 1280 x 
1024 24 bit colour. 

Software Included: 

Family Album Creator 
Asymetrix’s Digital Video Producer 
Microsoft Internet Explorer 
Image Pals 2 
AVI to MPEG Converter 
HotMetal light. 

Creative Webphone 

Installation 

The Video Blaster has been 
around for quite a while and has 
undergone many revisions. Its lat- 
est incarnation is as a PCI board. 
Connecting the card is very easy. It 
inserts into the PCI slot and then 
involves connecting a male to 
female 15 pin VGA pass through 
connector from the primary video 
card to the Video Blaster (VB). 

The only point of confusion is 
said male to female connector. As 
the VB has 2 female plugs, one 
input, one output, and no markings 
on the card identifying either. It is 
actually possible to plug the cable 
into the wrong one. Although this 
won’t harm the card, it does mean 
that it won’t work and an inexperi- 
enced person may find themselves 
on the Creative helpdesk. 

This could have been overcome 
simply by mimicking the way it’s 
done on the 3Dfx. They use a male 
to female plug so that one input is 
male, the other female. You can’t 
get it wrong! 

The final things that needs to be 
attached are the specialised cable 
that ends in a single male video 
RCA connection and a female 
Super VHS plug. Still being picky, 
the male end of the plug is kind of 
stupid. A female end would have 
allowed you to use the male to 
male video plug that came with the 
card. Or even to buy one cheaply 
from Dick Smith or other electron- 
ics store. If you needed to extend 
the length of the cable, being a 
male end, it means you have to buy 


a female-to-female gender bender, 
of which a cheap one can degrade 
the quality of the image. 

Making it work 

Next it’s time to install the dri- 
vers. Upon booting Windows 95, 
the card being fully plug and play 
compatible is recognised by the 
operating system. By simply insert- 
ing the CD, Windows 95 installs 
the necessary driver simply and 
easily and all is running. 

With the card up and running, 
the next object that needs to be 
installed is the Video Camera. A 
small lightweight unit, it’s practical 
and has a lens the size of a fibre 
optic, It sits firmly anywhere, be it 
on top of monitors or your desk 
and has a shutter to close for priva- 
cy. The Camera uses an external 
power supply and has one female 
RCA in port. 

When everything is plugged in, 
the first thing you’ll notice is a hor- 
rendous discolouration along the 
right hand side of your monitor. It 
looks like the brightness has been 
turned higher in that spot only. 

The next thing is that there will 
be a purple patch and video inter- 
ference on your screen. This is the 
Video Blasters way of telling you 
that it needs to be configured 
(tongue in cheek). Admittedly, the 
entire process is explained in the 
manual, but can be overlooked by 
the zealous ones. Configuring the 
card is a matter of adjusting verti- 
cal and horizontal axis’ to align the 
video image within the VB. 

Using it 

Upon testing the camera and card, 
without recording or transmitting, it 
seems to skip. One of the easiest 
ways to test a conferencing card is 
to wave at the camera, if their is jit- 
ter, then the hardware is lagging. In 
the Video Blaster’s case, it would 
skip about 20 milliseconds, that 
might seem inconsequential, but 
the human eye can definitely detect 
one fifth of a second. 

One of the biggest problems with 
the Creative Camera is that its light 
adjusting ability is poor. In a well 
lit room, your can barely make any- 
thing out. The only solution was to 
shine a lamp in each parties face, 
making the experience highly 
unpleasant. 

The video conferencing package 
that comes with the kit is 
Creative’s Webphone. A very nice 
looking chat product at that. 
Designed to look like a mobile 
phone, it even has a little flip sec- 
tion. Plenty of buttons allow you to 
dial people’s IP addresses directly, 



Internet phone strikes a balance 
between useful design & cool but 
useless techy stuff 


or to type in their name so their 
current IP can be located from the 
Creative server. Upon selecting the 
destination, your phone makes a 
dialling noise and the others will 
ring. When they answer, bang, 
you’re in and conferencing. 

Once connected, the Webphone 
codec is immediate. It doesn’t build 
the image, instead it appears instant- 
ly. The quality however is not accept- 
able. You simply can’t make out the 
other persons face. Vocal communi- 
cations are fine, but video conferenc- 
ing is the point of this exercise. 

There is the option to take a 
snapshot of the other person, 
which does render a better quality 
image, but one decent image 
maketh not Video Conferencing. 
The frame rate however was good. 
It updated quickly and a fair rating 
of around 7 fps through a 28.8 
modem is accurate. 


What else is it good for? 

Creative aren't fully to blame for 
they have obviously worked hard to 
develop a low cost solution that 
combines average quality with aver- 
age frame rate. Which is exactly 
what you get across the Internet. To 
be fair to this technology, through 
RCA, or an internal network, there 
are a lot more uses for this card. 
Here are some suggestions: 

Because of the tiny lens, you could 
drill a very small hole and mount the 
camera on the front door, allowing 
you to watch activities outside whilst 
using your PC. Likewise, mounting it 
in a babies room would allow total 
video monitoring whilst you were 
surfing the Net. Across a corporate 
Network, the technology is great. 
Perfect even. Otherwise, it's an effec- 
tive tool for home monitoring, at 
least until we all have cable modems. 
Then this technology will indeed 
challenge the conventional phone. 








| MICRONICA | 

Micronica are a bunch down in 
Melbourne that seem to spend a 
good amount of time researching 
the products they’re going to sell. 
Top marks to them, because the 
Digital Vision Invideo Computer 
Eyes product is very impressive. 

Digital Vision Invideo PCI . 
Price: $499 

Formats: NTSC, PAL-B/G, Secam 
and SVHS 

Camera format: NTSC Colour 
Driver Support: Video codec 
Maximum Video resolution: 640 x 

480 

Maximum Frame rate: 3ofps 
Maximum Colour depth: 24 bit 
Maximum Resolution: 1280 x 
1024 24 bit colour. 

Software Included: Cu-Seeme 
Asymetrix’s Digital Video Producer 

Making it work 

Installing it is very easy. You can 
just plug it into a PCI port on your 
computer and that's it. It doesn’t 
need any pass through cables, con- 
nectors.. Nothing! Everything 
should be this simple! 

The card has one female RCA 
input (top marks there) and a 
SVHS input as well. Utilising a 
female RCA, there is no need to 
purchase Gender Benders and you 
can use the included Video lead or 
one as long as you want. 

Actually, one of the biggest rasp- 
berries that Digital Vision blow 
Creative’s way is that there is no 
configuring. With the camera 
plugged in, it works, straight away. 
No need to align anything, this is 
truly a plug and play card! 

Installing the drivers is also easy. 
Upon booting Windows 95, the 
card being plug and play compliant 
is immediately recognised and a 
disk requested. The only point of 
complaint is that the writing on the 
disks is so minutely small that it is 
actually possible to pick up the 


Win 3.1 drivers by 
accident. Not that we, 
ahem, cough, may 
have, shuffle, done 
that here, avert eyes... 

Anyway, providing 
that accident isn’t 
made, the drivers 
install first time per- 
fecdy, and the card 
works great. The next 
step being to plug in 
the camera. This is a 
little different, may 
scare the novices but 
still should be consid- 
ered another feather 
in its cap. 

The camera doesn’t 
use an external power 
supply (though it 
could at your own 
cost - 12V necessary), instead, an 
adaptor plugs into the 5.25 power 
socket in your PC and a bracket 
that screws over one of your empty 
slots has a male power outlet in it. 
A unique and original solution that 
will ultimately save you a power 
point and money. 

Using it 

The camera itself is also vastly 
superior to the Creative one. It fea- 
tures a number of external controls 
that allow you to set the focus, 
brightness and WB. Also, even in a 
dimly lit room, its auto light set- 
ting is perfect. With nothing but 
an overhead light, the entire room 
is perfectly discernible and there’s 
no need to shine a lamp in your 
face. There’s also a shutter to close 
for privacy. 

With everything plugged in, the 
first tests of the card will allow you 
to check its frame rate and local 
accuracy. Again, superior to the 
Creative kit, it’s clear, sharp, and 
never skips a beat. It’s just like 
watching TV on your PC. 

Using the card on the Net howev- 
er, started off being rather a tragedy. 
Cu-Seeme, the included conferenc- 
ing package is quite simply, NOT 


useable through a modem. 

Designed by people at the University 
of Cornell, its primary purpose was 
to allow multi user communication 
inside the University. 

Making its way onto the internet, 
it’s the best VC product out there - 
if you have an internal network. 
Utilising our modem test, it quite 
simply wasn’t useable. 

Not wanting to disappoint the 
masses though, and curious as to 
what this card can do, we ripped a 
copy of Internet phone 4 off the 
Net and gave it a go. What a good 
idea that was as well. I phone 4 
with Video is a vastly superior 
product to all the others, full stop. 

With the Digivision camera, it 
allowed us multiple resolutions, 
and worked beautifully. The first 
thing we noticed about this kit was 
that the quality was vastly superior. 
This had nothing to do with 
Iphone, it was just using the 
Windows 95 driver for the card. 
Myself and the other tech both 
agreed that we could recognise 
each other, very easily and that this 
was the kit to have. 

High quality output on this card 
was indeed that. Although you’d 
only get about 1 frame a minute, 


the quality was as close as you’d 
get to a digital camera. Medium 
resolution still offered excellent 
clarity and about 6 frames a sec- 
ond, which was great. Even at 640 
x 480 and low quality you got 
about 2 frames a minute. At that 
high a res, what a feat! 

In the end... 

Overall, the Micronica kit is vast- 
ly superior to the Creative one. 

With higher resolutions, better 
lighting, manual controls and 
super simple installation with no 
glitches at all, it’s the kit to have. 
Video conferencing still isn’t that 
practical, but on this card, even 
with a modem, it’s definitely use- 
able where the Creative kit isn’t. Of 
course, once we have cable access 
to the Internet, this is the kit to 
have. Let’s just hope we don’t 
exhaust all the bandwidth! 

Jere Lawrence Justin Searchfield 



Microsoft * Windows’ 95 gives you the bOOfc 




To make your games the coolest they can be, you need the boot of Mlcroooff Windows* 98. 

Its 32-bit architecture not only lets you kick some serious enemy butt, but also gives you 
full-on, 3D graphics that’ll blow you away. To prove our point, Windows 95 now comes with a 
complimentary CP somplor with 13 hair raising games. So get with the program. If it’s full-on 
games that get you going, then \t'% time to fool the boot of Windows 95. 

Complimentary Games Sampler available while stocks last. Available from participating resellers. 


Microsoft 


to kick some serious butt 


www.microsoftcom.au/games/ where do you want to go today?* 


ITLINE PPPSTR 






HOTIDRRC 


Hercules Stingray 1 28/3D Video Card 


It’s happened, finally! A 3D accel- 
erator card that combines excellent 
2D performance with a top end 3D 
graphics chip on a single board. In 
the past, 3D/2D cards haven’t quite 
been all they were cracked up to 
be, either poor 3D performance 
compared to dedicated 3D cards, or 
average 2D performance compared 
to dedicated 2D cards. The 
Hercules Stingray looks to have 
combined the best of both worlds, 
with 3 separate graphics processors 
for 3D processing, 2D processing, 
and video playback. 

It’s not just any old 3D chip either, 
Hercules have used the current 
industry leader, the 3Dfx Voodoo 
Rush chipset with a single slot of 


6MB EDO 
DRAM. 2MB of 
the RAM is 
reserved for dedi- 
cated texture map 
memory, and the 
other 4MB is 
shared as display 
memory. The 
Stingray also 
claims to be a sec- 
ond generation 3D 
accelerator, 
because it handles 
the triangle setup in hardware rather 
than in software, which in the past 
has created a computing intensive 
software bottleneck. The 3Dfx 
chipset supports a host of 3D special 



effects, including 
advanced texture mapping, point 
sampled bi-linear filtering, MIPmap 
filtering, depth cueing perspective 


correction, fogging, alpha blend- 
ing, Z-buffering, flat shading, and 
Gouraud shading as well. 

Full screen/full motion video 
playback hasn’t been neglected 
either, with a 64 step bilinear fil- 
ter combined with full line 
buffer providing playback at a 
very respectable 30 fps, and the 
MMX optimised card supports 
Mpeg-i and Mpeg-2 playback as 
well. For an all in one top end 
3D/i28-bit 2D card, the Stingray 
1 28/3 D will more than satisfy all 
your gaming needs as well as just 
about anything else you could want 
to do with your computer, and at a 
very respectable r.r.p. of $499 it’s 
comparatively affordable too. 


NEC MultiSync P1 150 
and El 100 monitor 


Monitors are often an over- 
looked part of a computer 
setup. There’s so many 
advertisements for com- 
puter systems that spruik 
on and on about their 
motherboards, video 
cards and so on and then 
tack on ‘15-inch monitor’ 
as an afterthought at the 
end. Dammit, it’s just not good 
enough. The monitor is a bloody important 
part of a system - it's where you see what hap- 
pens, and if it doesn’t work very well you’re 
going to have a shitty experience no matter 
how blindingly fast your processor is. 

A decent monitor adds so much to the experi- 
ence that once you’ve seen one in action, there’s 
no going back. NEC have a built up a name for 
good monitors, right up there with Sony and 
the other bigwigs, and they’ve just released a 
couple of new ones, the Pi 150 and E1100. Both 
21-inch monitors, The Enoo is designed more 



for the home user whereas the 
P1150 is more of your top end 
CAD/CAM type for professional 
use. They’re both high quality, 
with the Enoo using flat square 
technology CRT with a 0.28 dot 
pitch, and the P1150 the aperture 
grille CRT model. 

One of the problems in the 
past with larger screen monitors 
(the Enoo has a viewing area of 19.8”, 
and the P1150 19.6”) has been the image vari- 
ation from magnetic fields, but NEC reckon 
they’ve licked the problem with their 
GlobalSync control which will, they say, give 
you a focused and crisp image. The other 
problem with large monitors is what’s called 
‘moire’, which is where a repetitive wavy pat- 
tern appears on the screen. To counter this, 
NEC have implemented an imaginatively 
named circuit called the ‘moire canceller cir- 
cuit’, and it’s located within the OSM (On- 
Screen Manager) controls so you can adjust it 
yourself too. 

They’re both Plug’n’Play compatible, as you 
would expect and compatible with either PC’s 
or Macs (with an adaptor). They both sound 
like something any gamer would be proud to 
own, but take a deep breath because here’s the 
not-so-good part; the price. You’re looking at 
around about S4000 for the Enoo, and S5000 
for the P1150. That’s a fair chunk of your pock- 
et money, but if you can afford it it'll enhance 
your gaming experience a hell of a lot. 

Big monitor = big fun gaming 





Datasonix note- 
book tape backup 

You tend to become 
accustomed to 
things getting 
smaller, faster 
and better in 
the technolog- 
ical world - 
nothing to 
get all 
that excit- 
ed about, but 
every so often some- 
thing grabs your eye and you find yourself thinking 
‘how did they do that?’. Datasonix have just 
released a tape backup drive for notebooks, called 
the Pereos. Not all that impressed? Well, what about 
if we told you that the cartridge was about the size 
of a twenty cent coin? Still not impressed? How 
about if we told you that each cartridge stores 
around 1 gigabyte of information, and transfers at up 
to 10Mb a minute, or iMb every 6 seconds? Pretty 
impressive, we think. Most backup systems are fairly 
small, but often in the past they haven’t been very 
portable. With the Pereos it isn’t just the cartridges 
that are tiny, the whole unit is about as big as a 
Walkman and weighs in at around 10 ounces, making 
it easy and simple to carry from place to place, so it 
can be used as a sort of secondary hard drive as 
well as a backup utility. There’s no skimping on the 

usual backup utili- 
ties either, with 
incremental back- 
ups and restora- 
tions, a full search 
function, file 
import and export, 
and more. 



HWB3 HU I LUHtifc! 


Matrox Rainbow 
Runner Studio 



If you ever wanted to watch TV on 
your PC, or capture video, or create 
your own multimedia extravaganzas 
in the privacy of your home then 
you’ve probably considered a video 
editing card of some sort. Just imag- 
ine watching the Aussies beat the 
crap out of the Pommie cricket 
team in a window of your monitor 
while you pretend to do work! How 
cool would that be! 

There is a catch though, the 
Rainbow runner will only work with 
the Matrox Mystique video card, as 
a daughterboard. If you’ve already 
got a Mystique, or were consider- 
ing purchasing one, then for 
around $500 this could be just 
what you’ve been waiting for. 


Features-wise, it’s looking pretty 
damn impressive. To begin with 
you can capture from a camcorder 
recording, edit in some wizz bang 
special effects, and then re-record 
the finished product on to the 
video tape. Then there’s always the 
option to watch TV on the monitor, 
change channels or display options 
with the remote control, or just sit 
it in the background and set it to 
listen for some key words, at which 
point it’ll pop back up on screen for 
you. Sounds pretty cool, you could 
just set the keywords to be ‘Taylor’ 
and ‘century’ and settle back to get 
some work done... 

Of course, you could do the 
reverse as well; watch TV on your 


monitor, and play games on your 
big screen stereo TV (either 
NTSC or PAL), and 
with the flicker 
reduction filter on 
the card the graph- 
ics display should 
be pretty decent 
too. Then there’s 
video conferencing. 

Through a video 
camera your image 
is piped through to 
whomever you 
choose, and the 
Rainbow Runner 
also allows for a 
dual window display for 
multi-party conferencing. Of 
course, you could also just grab 
an image from a video or Mpeg file 
and resize it and print it out as a 
business card or as something to 
put in the family album. The 


Rainbow Runner comes with a 3 
year warranty, and for more infor- 
mation you can contact Focal Point 
software on (02) 9925 0388. 


Modem Wizard 



Modems can 
be a big hassle 
when they 
decide they 
don’t want to 
work properly. 
To fix them, 
you’re usually 
faced with a lot 
of frustrating 
guesswork or a 
call to a help 
desk, neither of 
which are 
attractive 
options in most 
cases. Now 
there’s an 
Australian 
product to help 
you when you 
get stuck, it’s 
called Modem 
Wizard and it’s 
from a compa- 
ny called 
rketing Results 
(confidence inspiring name, huh). 
The product itself does look like it could come in 
handy occasionally, especially for those not all that familiar with 
dial-up networking, or modems in general. The main function of it 
would seem to be the diagnostic equipment; it will perform tests to 
determine just what’s going wrong, and where physically the prob- 
lem lies as well. There’s a few other goodies including line speed 
testing and help with modem installation as well. For around $50 
bucks, if you’re new to the world of modem communications it 
might just be what you need. 




NEC Versa 2500/2600 
Notebook 


It's kind of sad when notebooks 
start coming out that are more 
powerful than your desktop com- 
puter. At the very least, you know 
it’s time to start thinking about 
that upgrade... 

NEC have two new notebook 
computers in their Versa series, 
the 2500 and the 2600. Both are 
pretty damn high end machines 
for notebooks, but the 2500 is the 
slightly less powerful of the two. 
The 2500 comes with a P133 
processor, 256k L2 cache, and a 
12. 1 inch DSTN high resolution 
colour monitor capable of resolu- 
tions of up to 800x600 with 256 
colours, 8 x CD, 16-bit Sound 
Blaster compatible card, two stereo 
speakers and a microphone, a 1.08 
GB hard drive, and 16MB EDO 
RAM. If you think that’s impres- 


sive for a note 
book, the 
Versa 2600 is 




even more 
impressive, 
with the 
addition of a 
P150 MMX 
processor, 10 x CD, and a slightly 
larger 1.44 GB HD. 

They both weigh around 3kg 
each, and have ample room for 
SCSI controllers, modems or video 
cards to be added. Then there’s 
two nifty little features as well - 
firstly the infra-red port, which 
allows for wireless communica- 
tion, be that for printing or trans- 
mitting data at a speed of up to 
115.2kbps with other infra-red 
capable devices. The second is the 
choice of operating systems includ- 
ed with the system - the first time 
it’s booted up a menu pops up and 
the user chooses from Windows 9 5 
or DOS/Win 3.11, with the unnec- 
essary OS being deleted. 

They’re both more than just a lit- 
tle bit cool, and the idea of playing a 
game or two on those interminable 
train trips home is most appealing. 
The 2500 retails for around $4200, 
and the 2600 for around 
$5500, and Nec Australia has 
more info on (02) 930 2000. 





UPTIME 

The Dell 

Dimension XPS M200s 


Ahhh, It's a good time to be a 
serious gamer. Actually, it’s always 
been a good time to be a serious 
gamer, but now it’s an even better 
time to be a serious gamer. A cou- 
ple of months ago we told you 
about the new spankingly nice 
Compaq machine designed with 
the gamer mind, and now we’ve 
managed to secure another high 
spec machine designed by Dell for 
people just like us (except with 
more money). 



Is Dell. Is good 

They're called the Dell Dimension 
XPS M series, and while there are a 
few different models with different 
components, we’ve got our grubby 
little hands on the biggest and the 
best - the M200S. 

How’s this for starters? The new 
430VX chipset running an Intel 
200MHz processor equipped with 
MMX, 512k single bank pipeline 
burst cache, 32MB SDRAM, a 4MB 
Matrox Millennium video card, 
Altec ACS-90 speakers, a Sound 
Blaster Vibra 16 (hardwired in to 
the mother- 
board), US 
Robotics 
33.6k inter- t 
nal modem, h.j 
2 external 
USB ports, j 
a 17” 

Trinitron 
monitor, a 


CIckanabunon 




12 x CD ROM, and 
3.2GB of hard drive 
space. Dell have mostly 
got it right on the nose. 

For any avid gamer, 
this would have to be 
close to a perfect 
machine. It would have 
been nice for a 3D 
accelerator card to be 
included at least as an 
option, and maybe a 
slightly higher end 
sound card (the AWE 
32 is an optional 
upgrade) but these are 
really fairly small quib- 
bles, and easy to inte- 
grate separately should 
the buyer choose to do 
so. For the price tag of 
$4,399, you’ll also get 
the obligatory copy of 
Win ‘95 installed, as 
well as the MS Office 
Pro pack and Norton 
Bundle as well. The case itself is 
well designed and functional, easy 
and simple to open and makes 
physically installing add-ons a dod 
die with their compact mother- 
board layout. There’s plenty of 
space for peripheral devices too, 
with three ISA and four PCI slots, 
as well as a three year warranty in 
case you screw something up... 

All up it's a great system; easy 
to install and use, and has 


What does my computer contain? 


How do I complete the setup of my 
computer? 


How can I customize my computer? 


What help is available? 


Dell Inspector 


General Overview |_ 


Processor & BIOS 


fc~a 


Idle RAM 22 MB 


w 

& 


C INI IMkr. I02W68 (Mb 17 

CurartCafaDw* Sector. — 


Service Tag 


System Software 


Helpful help screens to suit novices as well as 
experienced users 

enough Dell help systems pre- 
installed so that even a complete 
novice would be up and running in 
no time at all. For the more 
advanced user, it offers plenty of 
grunt and high end equipment. 
Simply, if you have the money, you 
could do a lot worse. 



Modem 



System Specs 


Motherboard: 


P55C 430VX PCIset 

200MHz MMX chipset with 32kb 

internal cache 

64 bit BUS, 32 bit address BUS 
512k SRAM L2 single bank, 
pipeline burst cache 
32 MB SDRAM (upgradeable to 
64MB SDRAM, 128MB EDO) 


Video Card 


Matrox Millennium 
220MHz DAC 
4MB WRAM -60ns 
16 bit Z-buffering 
Resolution: 

1600 x 1280 @ 64k colours (110Hz) 
1280 x 1024 @16.7 million (200Hz) 


Sound 


Sound Blaster Vibra 16 with 16 bit 
FM synthesis 

(upgradeable to AWE32 for 32 bit 
wavetable synthesis) 

Altec Lansing ACS 90 amplified 
speakers with 4.5W per channel 


Hard Drive 


Western Digital Caviar 3.2GB 
EIDE 

i28kb buffer cache 
access speed <i2ms 
5200 RPM 

or 

IBM 3.2GB EIDE 
i28kb buffer cache 
access speed 9.5ms 
5400 RPM 


CD ROM 


Mitsumii2 speed EIDE 
Transfers up to 1800kbps 
Access time <i4oms 


US Robotics Sportster 33.6kbps 
Data/Fax/Voice/Full duplex 
speakerphone 
Fax speed 14.4kbps 


Fast processor, big monitor, 
and top end equipment 




Microsoft* Windows 95 


udui i mriuunrd ■ ■ 

gives you the OOOX 

to kick some 
serious butt. 



0.2.&&&L £ □ 

«— ■— 3 ^ t> 


Mission 


i^Slart | ^ Inbox - Microsoft Exchange 1 1 Monster T ruci<"1^adness 


Serious studies by serious people 
with degrees have shown that 
computer games are cool. To make 
your games even cooler, you need 
the boot of Microsoft* Windows* 95. 
The 32-bit architecture not only lets 
you kick some serious enemy butt, but also gives you 
3D graphics that’ll blow you away and a bad case of 
white knuckles. To prove our point, Windows 95 now 
comes with a complimentary CD sampler of 13 hair 
raising games that will get your blood pumping. 


But only for a limited time, while stocks last and from 
participating resellers. More importantly, many of 
today’s coolest, out-there games are being specifically 
developed for Windows 95, so without it, these new 
games just won’t happen. For those gamer’s who 
are into the ‘net, nothing gives you a faster 
response, bigger, badder graphics and 
easier multiplayer links than Windows 
95. So get with the program. If it’s full-on 
games that get you going, then it’s 
time to feel the boot of Windows 95. 





Microsoft 

www.microsoft.com.au/games/ where do you want to go today?* 


Complimentary Games Sampler available while stocks last. Available from participating resellers. 


FRONTLINE WGPCP 



MMM 

] -Jm] M 

DIUCRS 

ons 



WF-’' ™- mm 





The Rollins Bond Come in and Bum - the interactive CD 



A s technology develops it 
has to be more and more 
compelling to integrate 
music CDs with interactive ele- 
ments for artists and record com- 
panies alike. There have been a few 
before, though most haven’t 
proved to be all that popular - pos- 
sibly because they were often crap. 
A music CD with a few photos and 
a two page bio of the band doesn't 
make for much of an interactive 
experience, I'm afraid. 

Henry Rollins, never one to be 
backward about coming forward, 
along with his band have helped to 
engineer their latest CD to incorpo- 
rate interactive elements with a 
web page as well. And for the most 
part, it works, though not quite as 
well as one might hope. The music 
itself is pretty good if you’re a 



Rollins Band fan, but 
again the interactive 
elements leave a little 
to be desired. There’s 
a couple of pages of 
text - a nice timeline 
of the band and 
Henry, as well as 
some material about 
their past releases. 

Then there’s the .avi 
clips, which are nice 
even if they are a little 
short. All up though, 
it’s little more than 
filler. There’s nothing 
really to keep you 
happy for more than 
a few minutes on the 
CD and while there is 
a link to the website 
there's nothing new 
there either, in fact 
it’s pretty much the 
same thing as the 
CD. It’s a shame really, because 
the potential of interactive music 
CD’s is quite huge and has yet to 
be exploited. Still, if you’re a 
Rollins fan then you might enjoy 
it... at least for a while. 


Henry’s career choice 
was a sensible one , as 
front row forwards 
usually burn out at 30 



Romeo & Juliet 


S ubtitled “An Interactive 
Trip To Verona Beach”, 
this CD ROM essentially 
contains an edited highlights pack- 
age of Baz Luhrmann’s astounding 
film adaptation (it was clearly just 
too good to win an Academy 
Award) of “William Shakespeare’s 
Romeo & Juliet”. After placing the 
CD in the drive, you sit back to 
watch a sequence of stills from piv- 
otal scenes detail the bare bones of 
the story. The collage presentation, 
incorporating the still shots, over- 
laid by text describing the scene, 
the appropriate music constantly 
playing, and short grabs of 
speech, is effective in captur- 
ing the spirit of the film. It 
must be said, though, that lit- 
tle of the startling visual 
impact of the film comes 
across successfully. I guess 
this is due mainly to the 
technical limitations of this 
sort of thing, but also 
because the fast edit, cut’n'- 


paste style of the film is de rigeur 
for any competent multimedia CD 
ROM and, consequently, this just 
doesn’t surprise in any way. 

You can click on all the charac- 
ters, or “Players”, for a pretty pic- 
ture and some background detail, as 
well as opening “Mercutio's Pillbox” 
for more fascinating facts about life 
in Verona Beach. There’s also a 
complete version of the screenplay 
for you to peruse. All told, I found it 
interesting for about an hour or so, 
but I don't think it has what you 
might call “long term value”. 

D.W. 








V M 0 JIRUiUHIIIffl 


Guitar Hits Volumes 1 and 2 



The ability to teach is one of the 
most under-utilised functions of 
computers and computer software 
to date. Ubisoft have set about 
changing this with a series of pro- 
grams aimed at those of you think- 
ing about taking up or improving 
you guitar skills. Guitar Hits vol- 
umes one and two are simply the 
best educational programs I have 
ever seen, on any subject. To be 
honest, I haven’t played for years, 
though if these titles had been 
available to me I may still be at it. 
Each program is based around a 
small but important collection of 
songs. Important because they use 
some technique or style which 
every guitarist needs to know. The 
beauty of Guitar Hits is in the way 
the lessons are presented and 
explained. Each track is broken up 
into separate elements which can 
be played right through or looped 


individually to help you to get it 
right. There is a video window 
which shows the correct fingering 
as the song plays and a separate 
section which deals with special 
techniques such as vibrato, slide 
and harmonics so that you can 
incorporate them into your lessons. 
A section on chords explains how 
and why they are used in each 
track, giving you a bit of back- 
ground theory in the process and if 
you feel like changing the tempo, 
maybe to slow the play down to 
make it easier to see and hear 
what’s going on, it’s as simple as 
moving a slider! Volume 2 even 
includes a built in electronic tuner, 
just plug your guitar into your 
soundblaster mic. In and away you 
go. A must for any learner guitar 
player sick of ploughing through 
music books or expensive lessons! 

George Soropos 


Many guitar tutors have come and 
gone, but this one scores highly for 
clever and practical design. With your 
input, this will get the job done. 














$15 each inc. postage and handling. Enquiries: ph: 02 9310 1433, 
fax: 02 9310 1315, subs@next.com.au 


#1 Online fighter combat, Duke 
3D, Grand Prix 2, Warcraft 2 
playguide. 

#2 Kali net games, Earthsiege 2, 
Zork Nemesis, C&C playguide. 

#3 3D graphic accelerators, 
Settlers 2, Cyberstorm, Zork 
Nemesis walkthrough. 


#4 PC buyers guide, Australian 
Rugby League, Normality, Spycraft 
walkthrough. 

#5 Net games, Time Commando, 
Close Combat, Civ 2 strategy guide. 

#6 Best and worst games of all 
time, Quake, Pandora Directive, 
Flight sim roundup. 

#7 Violence in games, 
Mechwarrior Mercenaries, Krush 
Kill 4 n Destroy, MMX Pentiums 


#8 Making of a Game, Video Card 
feature, C&C Red Alert, Privateer 2. 

#9 Red Alert Feature, Alphaworld, 
Wavetable soundcards. Tomb 
Raider, Syndicate Wars. 

#10 New Star Wars games, 3D 
accelerators compared, DIY 
Upgrade guide, Discworld 2 


#11 Diablo, Interstate *76, MMX 
Pentiums examined, Build your 
own PC and network, Dark Reign. 

#12 MDK, Quake Mission Packs, 
Huge joystick guide, Internet 
Newsgroups, Ecstatica 2. 

#13 Need for Speed II, X-Wing vs. 
TIE Fighter, Quake addons, PCs 
versus Consoles debate, Online 
game hackers. 


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Windows into the 



Monitor technology evolves at last 


V irtually all monitors sold 
for home computers these 
days are based around the 
CRT (Cathode Ray Tube). The CRT 
has been around for a very long 
time now and hasn't really 
changed much. Of course, today’s 
CRTs have better focus, clarity and 
picture quality due to advance- 
ments in technology. 

Notebook owners will know that 
their display is based on LCD 
(Liquid Crystal Display) technolo- 
gy. Display manufacturers have 
been ramping up their production 
of the larger size LCD panels for 
use in making flat panel displays 
for desktop PCs as well as note- 
books. Another display technology 
has emerged from various R & D 
departments called PDP (Plasma 
Display Panel), they come in sizes 
of 20 inches and beyond. So, what 
do these new display technologies 
offer games players? 

Cathode Ray Tubes 

Cathode Ray Tubes have been 
used for displays for a long time, 
mainly due to the flexibility and 
cost of manufacture of the CRT. 
Most gamers would have a 14 or 15 
inch monitor, if your lucky you 
may have a larger display maybe 17 
or 21 inch. If you have played 
games on monitors of this size you 
should know that the experience is 
definitely more immersive than 
viewing the game on a small 
screen. 


The CRT is very flexible in its 
ability to display images in a wide 
selection of resolutions, most mon- 
itors are capable of displaying 
images from 640x480 pixels to 
1024x768 pixels. This is partly due 
to the fact that the CRT is an ana- 
logue device which also gives it the 
ability to display an unlimited 
number of colours. 

Monitors are usually very bulky 
and can take up a lot of valuable 
desk space, this is because the CRT 
itself has to be large enough to pro- 
ject the electrons at the phosphor 
on the screen, which in turn cre- 
ates the image you see. Most 
gamers will know that a standard 
monitor is great for playing games, 
but what if you don’t have the desk 
space available, or what something 
better is available?. Come on 
down!, Flat Panel Displays 

Liquid Crystal Display 

The LCD display has been used 
mainly in the notebook market, 
where a CRT would be way to big to 
lug around with you. There are two 
main types of LCD in production at 
the moment DSTN/STN (Dual 
SuperTwist Nematic) and TFT 
(Thin Film Transistor) commonly 
known as passive and active matrix 
respectively. Many companies are 
now releasing LCD based monitors 
for the desktop market, but prices 
are currently quite high. Prices 
should fall as the major players in 
the LCD business start increased 



LCD offers a cost-effective solution for colour flat screen monitors , but can't han- 
dle fast movement on-screen. 


production of their larger screen 
LCDs. Currently 13.3 inch displays 
are being used to create flat panel 
monitors with the same viewable 
area as a 15 inch CRT monitor. 

DSTN - Passive Matrix 

The cheapest LCD to manufac- 
ture at the moment is DSTN type. 
DSTN are not very much use for 
the average gamer, as they have an 
annoying trait, fast moving images 
on the screen leave a blurring 
effect as they move. This is due to 
the liquid crystal not being able to 
refresh every pixel in time. I am 
sure that if you played slow mov- 


ing strategy games you would be 
able to cope with this, but playing 
something like Sega Rally on one 
would be very annoying to say the 
least. Sharp have a set of LCD 
monitors that employ STN 
(SuperTwist Nematic) but have 
developed a new addressing 
scheme that eliminates the associ- 
ated blurring effect. Other compa- 
nies are not investing much R & D 
time with STN technology and are 
pumping most of their resources 
into the newer LCD technology, 
because, among other things, STN 
has a tendency to have a very small 
viewing angle. 


PCRMaffeE? 




jD Holographic technology. An HDVD device they can sell you, don’t expect to get much change from $15,000 though 


TFT - Active Matrix 

TFT LCD screens have a distinct 
advantage over DSTN and have the 
ability to display fast moving 
images without blurring. The view- 
ing angle of TFT screens is also 
greater than DSTN screens, mean- 
ing your friends can see what's 
happening on screen without need- 
ing to be directly in front of the 
screen. Most major LCD manufac- 
turers are currently ramping up 
production of these type of 
screens, especially in sizes of 12. 1 
inch’s and up. These companies 
are also trying to reduce the cost of 
manufacture by achieving higher 
yields in fabrication and by using 
bigger pieces of glass to produce 
the LCDs, meaning more LCDs 
can be created at once. The obvious 
benefit of an active matrix screen is 
that it will behave just like a CRT 
monitor screen when running your 
games, but take up a lot less desk- 
top real estate, leaving space for 
your other important peripherals. 

PDP - The biccer picture 

LCDs are very expensive to man- 
ufacture in large sizes. A few of the 
big display companies have been 
working on a new display method 
known as PDP (Plasma Display 
Panel). PDPs works by using little 
gas discharge cells which make up 
the pixels, but because these gas 
discharge cells can’t be minia- 
turised it is not possible to create a 
PDP that is smaller than 20 inch- 


es. There are a number of PDP 
manufacturers with units that have 
display sizes ranging from 21 inch- 
es to 42 inches, imagine playing 
your latest games on a screen that 
size! The only problem that PDPs 
have is the fact that they can't dis- 
play high resolutions yet, 640x480 
seems to be the norm. This could 
cause games players problems 
when SVGA (800x600 and up) 
resolutions are used more in main- 
stream games. These Plasma 
Displays are also not cheap, 
although they are cheaper than an 
LCD of similar size. They are prob- 
ably out of reach for most gamers 
and will probably never make it 
onto mainstream 
desktops, you should 
see them appearing 
in your local airport 
as information 
screens and maybe on 
your lounge room 
wall as your TV. 

HDVD - 3 D IMAGES 
THAT FLOAT IN AIR 

A lot of people 
would say “No way!” if 
told that this new dis- 
play technology could 
project 3D floating 
images into the air in 
a SCI-FI’esque man- 
ner. But it is true. 

This latest display 
technology HDVD 
(High Definition 


Volumetric Display) created by a 
company called Dimension Media 
Associates can do just that. Given 
any video input, these devices can 
project a free floating images into 
the air up to 10 feet in width! 
HDVD is also capable of projecting 
3 dimensional images without the 
need for special goggles or VR 
headsets. These 3 dimensional 
images are fully viewable from any 
angle and under most lighting con- 
ditions. This is accomplished with 
the use of a complex array of preci- 
sion optical components, parabolic 
mirrors and beam splitters which 
then project the resulting still or 
moving image into the air. 


3D style games would take on a 
whole new meaning, instead of 
just seeing the 3D environment in 
the game on a 2D screen the actu- 
al scene could be recreated in 
front of you. This would allow you 
to view the game in full 3D, you 
could for instance look under a 
table for extra ammo. As this is a 
new technology, the price for a 
HDVD device is definitely out of 
reach of most gamers at present, 
but as we know prices fall, and 
with a technology like this it cer- 
tainly won’t be long before you 
can buy them with a standard PC 
(hurry up I say !). 

Flat or Fat? 

It may be a while until we all 
have flat panel displays on our 
walls and desktops. Compaq’s 
Presario PCs have an LCD monitor 
included, so you can see that they 
are already slowly starting to filter- 
ing through to the general con- 
sumer market. The real problem 
that must be overcome is the high 
price of flat panel screens, the 
price is almost 4 times that of an 
equivalent sized CRT monitor. 
Once this hurdle is overcome then 
LCD monitors can become a major 
contender in the display arena. 

The technology that most 
gamers (especially me!) will be 
waiting for is HDVD or a similar 
technology. 10 foot 3D images 
floating in space is what dreams 
are made of. The possibilities for 
games are virtually endless, 
Whole rooms could come alive in 
your living room while 6 foot 
monsters pounce on you from 
around your sofa! Suddenly Star 
Trek’s Holodeck doesn’t look so 
ridiculous... 






>q>a 


SETUP 


with Ashton (Dills 


PC PLPYING UP? 
Hardware hassles? 
Software not quite as 

SOFT AS IT SHOULD BE? 

Don’t take it out on your 

BABY, TAKE IT UP WITH ME. 
I HAVE THE ANSWERS TO 
YOUR PROBLEMS. 

Setup 

PC PowerPlay 
PO BOX 634 
Strawberry Hills 
NSW 2016 

SETUP@PCPO WERPLAY. NEXT. COM. AU 


Secondly, I now have the pleasure 
of using the internet but once 
again my modem stuffs up. I can't 
log on at any more than 9600 so it 
takes me hours to do anything, if I 
try any faster it makes a funny 
sound about half way through con- 
necting and i have to disconnect 
every time I try to use it. Oh and 
another thing I play modem games 
with my friends and if they ring 
me it always works perfectly, but if 
I ring them it either won’t work or 
we lose the connection halfway 
through. 

PLEASE HELP!! THANKYOU! 


When you write, remember to 

INCLUDE AS MUCH PERTINENT 
INFORMATION AS POSSIBLE. SEND 

your CONFIG.SYS and 
AUTOEXEC.BAT and any associ- 
ated *.INI files for Windows 

THAT MIGHT TELL ME MORE ABOUT 
YOUR PROBLEM. GlVE ME AS 
DETAILED AN EXPLANATION AS YOU 
CAN AND BE SURE TO INCLUDE AS 
MUCH DETAIL AS POSSIBLE ABOUT 

your PC. Feel free to email 

YOUR QUESTIONS OR, IF YOU WANT 
TO SNAIL MAIL, PLEASE REMEMBER 
TO WRITE CLEARLY OR BETTER STILL, 
PRINT YOUR LETTERS. 


Modem mayhem 

wyi My parents own a Packard 
Hku Bell Pentium 150, with 32 
megs of RAM, 2 gig hard drive, 8 
speed CD ROM and it runs MOST 
things perfectly. Although I do 
have 2 challenges for you to pon- 
der over; 

1. Even though Origins ‘Strike 
Commander’ is an ancient game I 
think that it kicks ass... My old 
computer ran it perfectly but now 
on my new Pentium I get the mes- 
sage not enough DOS memory... 
blah, blah, blah. I have included 
copies of my autoexec.bat and con- 
fig.sys from my C:. Can you 
PLEASE tell me what the problem 
is or to fix it at least, and maybe 
what I may or may not need out of 
the crap that is in these files. 

2. My second problem is my 
modem, it’s F#@ked up. Firstly 
when I try to ring one of the local 
BBS’s it connects ok but then all of 
this crap starts filling the screen 
and I can’t do anything I can see a 
little bit of their stuff mixed among 
a whole heap of jargon. It’s like 
some sort of interference. I’ve tried 
it on a few different BBS's and 
they all do the same thing. 


David Anderson 
Camden, NSW 

Conflg.sys 

devicehigh=a:\himem.sys 

devicehigh=a:\emm386.exe RAM 

highscan 

fileshigh=30 

buffershigh=30 

lastdrive=e 

dos=high 

devicehigh=c:\pbtools\sgidecd.sys 

/d:mscdoooi 

devicehigh=c:\windows\mouse.sys 

autoexec.bat 

c:\apps\univbe\univbe.exe 

path c:\windows\;c:\windows\com- 

mand;c:\;c:\apps 

set bootdisk=a: 

c:\sound16\utility\azcal.exe 

lh 

c:\windows\command\mscdex.exe 
/d:mscdoooi /m:20 /s /e 
set blaster=a220 i) di Lj 
set sound=c:\soundi6 

1. Thanks for including 
your 0 MEM /C, good 
move :-). I get the impression 
that your boot disk is DOS 7. 
You’re unlikely to get the memo- 
ry you require unless you use 
DOS 6. DOS 7 is as bloated as 
Windows 95. For 0 start you can 
see in your MEM /C dump that 
Windows is loading IFSHLP and 
SETVER automatically, even 
though it’s not in your 
CONFIG.SYS ond AUTOEXEC.BAT, 
it’s a rather annoying feature 
of DOS 7. That’s wasted memory. 
Still, we’ll see what we can do. 
Edit your CONFIG.SYS: 

Add UMB to your DOS=HIGH line. 
Add I = B000-B7FF to your 
EMM386 line. 

Remove the MOUSE. SYS driver, 
just load MOUSE from DOS after 
booting. 

In your AUTOEXEC.BAT reduce the 
CD-ROM buffers on your MSCDEX 


>a 


line to /M:8 and don’t load 
SMARTDRV or DOSKEY. 

That should help, but ideally 
you want to create a DOS 6 boot 
disk loading only what you need. 
2. I know exactly what’s wrong 
with your modem (does that 
moke you happy?). It’s all a 
matter of brand name, default 
settings and any settings you 
moy hove set yourself. For a 
start I’ll explain your modems 
behavior: at o speed of 9600 
your modem can communicate 
relatively fine over the tele- 
phone line, there’s no need 
(but it helps greatly) to use 
error correction. When you try to 
go higher you MUST turn on error 
correction or you’re going to 
get exactly what you saw — jar- 
gon. I think if you tried con- 
necting to a BBS at 9600 it 
would work fine just as it does 
with your ISP. Likewise, when 
you tried to use your ISP at a 
faster speed it wouldn’t con- 
nect — there's too much inter- 
ference and the handshaking 
can’t complete. 

Although different brand 
modems sometimes hove their 
own subset of modem commands, 
the following should work for a 
large portion of modems. Open 
up o terminal window (you can 
do this with a DOS comms prog or 
a Windows comms prog, just get 
into ’terminal mode’ any way you 
con) ond type the following: 

ATGV 

Then write down all the values 
you see. I’m suggesting this so 
you can keep your original con- 
figuration in case you need it. 
We’re going to reset your modem 
to its defaults. Type this: 

ATGF 

ATGW 

Then type ATGV again. Are the 
values exactly the some? If not 
(and I hope not) try connecting 
to a BBS or the Internet at a 
speed faster than 9600 again. 
Does it work? If not, or if the 
values didn’t change after you 
typed AT&F type the following: 

AT%C1 

AT\N3 

ATGW 


The first line turns on compres- 
sion, always a good thing 
(though some games recommend 
you turn it off (AT%C0). Leave it 
on for oil BBS and Internet 
stuff). The second line forces 
error correction which falls back 
to speed buffered (non error- 
correcting) mode if the receiving 
end doesn’t agree. 


Die, Windows, die! 

^ 1 hate Windows 95. How 
can you recommend it? 1 
put it on my computer and guess 
what? It screwed absolutely every- 
thing to hell and back. First I get 
fatal exception errors and then it 
can’t read from the registry or 
something. It tells me to ‘restore 
from backup’. Ha! what a joke! I 
can’t get Windows to run. 

So I went into Xtree Gold to check 
things out, and the whole of the 
Windows tree is corrupted or 
something along those lines. I 
couldn’t prune Win because it 
was corrupt so I had to reformat 
C:\! I have to thank PCPP for the 
DIY computer in Issue 11 for 
without that I would never have 
got any further. 

Well, after I installed DOS, do you 
think I was putting Win95 on 
again? Not if you paid me to. 
However Win3.i now won’t let me 
install any apps — like Office & 
Works. 1 get Application errors and 
General Protection Faults every 
two seconds and I can’t get any 
work done. What can 1 do? Please 
help! I'm in Yr.11 and am in dire 
need of a WProcessing program. 
HELP! SOMEBODY! I don’t know 
who else to turn to! May Windows 
95 burn in hell for all eternity. 
Christian 

Hoppers Crossing, VIC 

Windows 95, the evil spawn that 
it is, should surely die 
for all the pain it has 


>a 


caused you. I understand you 
brother, for I too have been 
screwed around by this semi-OS. 
In fact, most people get 
screwed by it — hence the need 
for columns like this ond Random 
Access! 

Although Windows 95 is scum, I 
have to admit that your prob- 
lems sound like your hardware — 
this isn’t something you can 
blame Windows 95 for (damn!). 
Did you install it onto a clean 
system? Upgrading from Windows 
3.1 con be problematic. Ideally 







you should format your drive and 
then install Windows 95. If you 
still get major GPFs then it’s 
certainly your hardware. The 
fact that you’re having prob- 
lems with Win3.1 as well seems 
to indicate it might not be a 
software problem ot all. 
find when you viewed your disk 
in XTG the disk wasn’t actually 
corrupted. Windows 95 uses 
VF AT, an extension of standard 
16-bit FAT where long file 
names are stored using directo- 
ry entries in the FAT structure. 
It’s a poor way of trying to 
implement nice features, such 
as extended file names, that 
real operating systems have 
(such as UNIX, NT or OS/2). Thus 
VFAT is used to keep compatibil- 
ity with FAT and obtain long file 
names. The problem is only 
Windows 95 can properly read 
VFAT, no other operating system 
recognises it, not even DOS 
(which is why you see file names 
truncated with in DOS). File 
managers such as XTG can’t 
properly interpret the directory 
structure when they read it in 
and the result is garbage — 
hence you can’t use old DOS file 
managers or disk utils with 
Windows 95, you have to use 
Windows opps. Pain in the butt. 


DlRECT-WHflT? 


^ Just what the heck is 

Direct X?? I know it is a 
driver, but for what? Also, does 
Direct X have any side-effects on 
the computer? A couple of weeks 
ago, some the icons in the start 
menu (such as the calculator, 
mine-sweeper and notepad)on my 
computer turned black, and then 
a few weeks later it changed back 
to normal icons. However, now 
they’ve turned into fluorescent 
colours!! Is this related to Direct X 
or is it something else?? 

Thankyou very much! 

Yours Sincerely, 

Robin Chan 
Internet 

What’s DirectX? Erm... 
ok. 


>a 


Here’s a brief summary: No, it’s 
not a driver. It’s o MS standard 
for providing fast access (direct 
access) to your video card. 
DirectX is an API that allows 
programmers to write one stan- 
dard set of code to write direct- 
ly to your video card. DirectX 


acts as a layer between the pro- 
gram and your hardware. Thus, 
your video card needs DirectX 
capable drivers to be able to 
support DirectX. Make sense? 

A point to remember however, 
that not many people realise, 
is that DirectX doesn’t make 
anything faster. Games aren’t 
faster with DirectX than they 
would be in DOS, the purpose 
of DirectX is to reclaim that 
speed that you get in DOS but 
would normally lose under 
Windows. DirectX doesn’t 
improve upon the situation, it 
rectifies a problem. If DirectX 
didn’t exist programmers 
wouldn’t be able to easily 
write directly to the video card 
whilst in Windows, and going 
through Windows is a very slow 
process (it wouldn’t be fast 
enough for games like Quake). 
So although it’s a much hyped 
standard for 'games’, it’s actu- 
ally a product designed to 
bypass the way Windows handles 
video whilst still being in 
Windows. All for the sake of 
keeping users in Windows where 
everything is nice and friendly 
rather than dropping to DOS to 
play a game (DOS is the ultimate 
gaming platform!). 

However in all fairness DirectX, 
because it standardises things 
for the programmers, means 
programmers can get on with 
writing one routine for video 
access instead of many such 
routines and thereby get on 
with the business of writing 
games. This is a good thing. 

It’s a similar situation with 
sound cards. Notice how DOS 
games have to support all 
those different sound cards 
and there are drivers for every 
single one? Well, until stan- 
dards like the HMI drivers came 
along, games programmers had 
to write code for every single 
cord they wanted to support. 

In Windows it’s up to the 
sound card manufacturer to 
write drivers for Windows to 
use and programmers simply 
make standard calls that 
Windows understands to gener- 
ate sound. 

And no, your strange desktop 
activity isn’t related to DirectX, 
but it does sound like a video 
driver problem so try re-installing 
them and see how you go. 


Random Access 

Welcome to Random Access, a column dedicated to interest- 
ing, useful and informative tips about anything and every- 
thing to do with your PC. Be it hardware, software, DOS or 
Windows you’ll find tips and tricks listed here every month. 

If you have some tips of your own you’d like to share with 
other gamers such as yourself feel free to send your tip into 
Setup and, if we publish it, we’ll be sure to credit and print 
your name. 

Don’t call me stupid! 

Is there anything more annoying than being treated like a complete 
idiot by your operating system? There probably is, but Microsoft doesn’t 
want to be outdone so they ensured you’d feel as dumb as possible 
when using Windows 95, the bouncing ‘Click here to begin’ arrow 
being a prime example. Was it made for completely stupid people? If 
you found it helpful then... er... don’t bother reading on. 

Remove it thus: 

Start REGEDIT (stupid people: type REGEDIT in the RUN box or from 
a DOS command prompt) and open 

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersio 
n\ Policies\ Explorer. 

If it doesn't exist create a binary value called NoStartBanner and give it 
a value of 01 00 00 00. 

Do the same for 

HKEY_USERS\.Default\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ 
Policies\Explorer and the bouncing arrow will be no more. 

Not stupid people: Always make a backup of your registry by copying 
the hidden and system files SYSTEM.DAT and USER.DAT before you 
edit the registry. Should anything untoward happen you can boot to 
DOS and replace the SYSTEM.DAT and USER.DAT files with your 
backups. 

Take command 

If you’re like me you use a command prompt to do most file operations. 
A long time ago the smart lads at JPSoft realised that although the com- 
mand prompt was a darn quick way of doing things, they could make it 
more dam quicker. Along came 4DOS. This nifty little program 
replaces the COMMAND.COM shell and has four hundred times the 
functionality. Going into a feature list here would be take a couple of 
pages, suffice to say once you start using 4 DOS you never look back. 

The good news is that you can use 4DOS with Windows 95. You can 
load it in your AUTOEXEC.BAT to be executed in every DOS window 
you pull up, or you can replace COMMAND.COM completely and boot 
Windows 95 from 4DOS (the latter is preferred, otherwise you load the 
4DOS shell from within the COMMAND.COM shell, two shells is a 
waste). If you choose the latter, just remember to add WIN to the end of 
your AUTOEXEC.BAT to actually start Windows automatically. 

The right command prompt will always outperform any GUI, as any 
UNIX user can tell you. It’s worth checking out: 
http://www.jpsoft.com:8o/ 

Shifting gear with Shutdown 

It can be a real pain in that rear-ish area when you install new hard- 
ware, new drivers or new software and you have to reboot, going 
through all the hassle of a cold reset. Well, be hassled no more! When 
you select ‘shutdowm’ from the Start menu just hold down SHIFT when 
you press ‘Yes’ and Windows 95 will just unload itself and re-start. 

Much quicker. 


IpII'K 






ORACLE 


Game grief relieved free! 


Oracle 

PC PowerPlay 
Reply Paid <34 
78 Renwick St, 

Strawberry Hills 
NSW 2016 

Oracle @pcpo we rplay. next, com.au 

Day of the Tentacle 

H l'm stuck (supa-glued) on 
Day of the Tentacle. How 
do I get the gold, a water proof 
material, Ben’s kite and find the 
vacuum cleaner with Hoagie? I’ve 
tried everything, even flushing 
spaghetti noodles down the toilet! 
Russell Tubman 
Gosnells, Wfl 

Ok Russell, To get the gold, 
take the pen on the table, 
but they would catch you, You’ll need 
to get rid of them, there is a smoke 
alarm on the mantle, they seem very 
concerned about fire. To start a fire, 
you’ll need Jefferson’s log. 

To get Jefferson’s log, Make 
Washington look cold by getting his 
teeth to shake. Replace his current 
false teeth with the chattering teeth 
found in the convention hall in 
Bernard’s time frame. 

Now, before you ask, here’s how you 
get the chattering teeth. Open the 
floor grate by the preplace, then 
chase the teeth into the grate, and 
pick them up from there. 

What?! You need more help? So now 
Washington won’t take the teeth. 
Sigh, here’s some more help. You 
need a cigar to remove Washington’s 
teeth. Go to the novelty salesman in 
the convention hall in Bernard’s time. 
Sabotage the lighter so he can’t use 
it! You need to switch the Pag gun 
from Dwayne’s room for the lighter 
gun in the convention hall. Dwayne’s 
chair (on the door) is in the way you 
need to get Dwayne to leave, so 
Bernard can grab the gun. 

To get Dwayne to leave, have Hoagie 
get the letter from the mailbox and 
give it to Bernard to give to Dwayne. 
Finally, get Hoagie to block the chim- 
ney, with Hancock’s blanket (go up on 
the roof (through the attic) to do it). 

To get Ben’s kite, Wash the carriage 
with brush, soap and water. The 
brush is in the cabinet in the wash- 
room where you found the bucket. 
The soap is on the maid’s cart. In 
Washington’s room, use the bed, pull 
the sash, then run out in the hall and 
pick up the soap off the cart. 

Get the waterproof kite material. The 



lab coat in Red’s workshop is water- 
proof. Give him the lab coat from the 
lab downstairs, then use the battery 
with the kite when Ben gives it to 
you. Push the kite when Ben says 
“Now”. Then pick up the battery and 
plug in the Chron-o-John. 

Finally, the vacuum cleaner. It’s sim- 
ple, just have Hoagie use the vacuum 
cleaner pier from the lobby with the 
suggestion box. 

Beneath a Steel Sky 

H I am currently playing 
Beneath a Steel Sky and 
I’m really stuck! I have gone to 
every place possible and collected 
collectable except for the key and 
the bottle of lubricant in the store- 
room. When I take the key and 
lubricant and walk out the store- 
room with them, the man there 
searches me and takes the key and 
lubricant away from me! How do I 
keep it, what do I do once I’ve got it. 
Stuart Kennedy 
Rdelaide, S. ft. 

Well Stuart, that’s one 
mighty problem you’ve got 
“key and lubricant” (let’s 
hope their not connected somehow). 
Here’s your answer! 

YOU DON’T NEED THEM! The WD40 
and key are what you refer to as a 
“Red Herring”. 

Neverhood 

H We have bought the game 
the Neverhood and there 
is a part we can’t get past. 

We are in a room with cheese and 
chips on the wall. There is a pro- 
jector with a picture on it and we 
don’t know what it is? Also, there 
is a red computer screen which has 
all these symbols in it and a small 
button underneath. Please help! 
Kristy and Matthew Green 
Rucusta, W.R. 

Well Kristy and Matthew, all I 
can say is that clear ques- 
tions lead to clear answers. I have to 
admit that I’m really not following your 
question. Here’s my best guess then. 
There are squares that when placed 
into one of the many video players 
throughout the land will tell the story 
of The Neverhood and help you on 
your quest. Klaymen will automatical- 
ly put all of the disks in his posses- 
sion into the player when you click on 
it. To view them when you get to a 
video player, just click on the button 
in the center of the screen, and then 



* 

with the 


The Neverhood 




click on the disk you wish to view. 
Otherwise, you may be referring to 
the H room. That’s the building with 
the H above the door and the ceiling 
fan. There’s a brown box with a 
bunch of square pieces in it! You 
need to arrange the pieces into the 
shape of an H. The three brown 
pieces should be on the right. When 
you arrange them correctly a door to 
the right of you will open. 

Chronicles of the Sword 

H l’m currently playing 

Chronicles of the Sword 
by Psygnosis and have re-started so 
many times that I can’t remember 
how many! I’ve found Merlin, got 
the Indictment to give to Morgana, 
given the porter his drink to get 
me into her rooms, but that's it! 
I’ve opened the iron gate and have 
the skull with the Ruby eyes and 
the gold goblet and knife, spoken 
to all and sundry. Please help, I'm 
about ready to trade this one in... 
Pat Gee 

Leoncatha, Vic. 

Don’t go selling it off yet 
Pat, try this. Go back to the 
castle and go right - there is a 
tankard under table. Go to smith’s 
and pll it with ale from one of the 
barrels. Give the rubies to smith and 
then you will be able to get a helmet 
from the table (if there is no helmet 
on the table do it later when you will 
need it). 

Return to guard and give him 
tankard. Enter door. Talk to King 
Arthur. Give him scroll. Return to 
Merlin, talk with him, go to King 
Arthur and talk with him too. Now go 
back to the place where you gave a 
scroll to King Arthur (pick up a hel- 


met by the way as mentioned above). 
Pick up scroll. Use helmet on door. 
Enter door. Talk with Morgana. Give 
her a scroll. 

After cutscenes and talking to Merlin 
return to M organa’s room and get a 
vial of dragon’s blood from table. 
Now go and talk with Wilf, Lancelot 
and King Arthur (one of this talks 
triggers events so you can leave 
Camelot after it). Return to the guard 
which you gave a tankard of ale and 
talk with him - he will return tankard. 
Go to the place where the guard of 
the Camelot gates was, exit. Go up. 
Go left. Use helmet on water. Back to 
the right. Go up. Use dragon’s blood 
on door. Enter door. Right. Go to 
water. Use tankard on water. After 
combat (SET DIFFICULTY TO EASY) 
return to Merlin and give him 
tankard. 

Go back to Guinevere’s well but go 
left instead of right. Here take a 
horn. Go back to crossroads and go 
right to dragon’s cave. Pick up a rock 
on the walkway. Use horn on cave 
entrance. Enter cave. Take an egg 
(this isn’t the correct one). Go right. 
Take a branch (not egg) from the 
nest. Use helmet on the path above 
lava (near middle of the screen) - you 
pll it with sand. Use helmet on egg 
and then take eggshell from poor. 
Return to Merlin and give him 
eggshell. Go to faerie ring outside of 
the castle, pick up a red toadstool 
and use it on ring - you now can talk 
to faerie leader. 

Toonstruck 

I I am playing Toonstruck 
MMM and am up to the part 
where you are captured in the dun- 
geon on CD2. I have found a door 




with a CLOWN face and just can't 
get in because the puzzle is so 
hard and very frustrating. Can you 
please help, I really want to finish 
this game! 

Bill Tran 
Yacoona, NSW 

1 Well Bill, you should be in a 
1 ^ 1 cell with no items. Talk to 
snout. He , ll turn around, letting you 
look at the mat. Take the crystal. 

Take the mat. Use the mat on drew to 
make a dust cloud and remove the 
guard. Take the key from the wall 
behind you and use it on the key- 
hole. Move far right and use the exit 
(the bird gives you clues to a book- 
shelf puzzle upstairs). Click on the 
Clown. You're going to have to use 
your noggin though, this puzzle is 
different every time so you’ll have to 
do it yourself. Copy the clowns fea- 
tures in order (it’s really just like sim- 
ple simon). It’s even easier if you 
write them down as you go along. 
Once in, have a chat with the clown. 
Can’t do more here yet. Go up the 
stairs. Go right - the chequered floor. 
Here is the book puzzle the minah 
bird downstairs gave the clues for. 
Click on the book case. The correct 
order is: Bi,Ri,R3,B2,B3,R4,R2,Bq. 

Go through the passage that opens. 
Use the music box on yourself to 
make the guard sleep. Use the moni- 
tor. Look at all the channels by using 
the dial. Before leaving put it onto 
the channel showing the room 
upstairs with the knight and che- 
quered floor. Now use the magnet on 
the bolted plate on the ceiling. The 
screen you get lets you move the 
knight around. Move him onto the 
raised tiles. The 4th tile you get to 
raises the gate. 

You’re not ready to go up from the 
knight hallway yet so go back to the 
main stairway. To the left of the 2nd 
stairway is a guards rec. room. 
Upstairs are more guards. Whilst on 
the 2nd floor landing, click on the 
left gargoyle to get another crystal. 
There is another on the right, but you 
cant get it yet. Go back to the dun- 
geon. Head north from the cell you 
were locked in to get to the climatron 
room. Press the button on the air cir- 
culator to open it. Go in. Use the fly 
costume on yourself to climb up. 

Kings Quest 6 

H I have been playing Kings 
Quest 6 and am having 
some trouble with it. I have the 
magic Map and can travel to the 
islands. On the Isle of Wonder, I 
can’t get the bookworm to give me 
a rare book. 

On the isle of the Sacred 
Mountain, I am up to the trap in 
the Catacombs where the roof falls 


in but cannot pass it. I also cannot 
get past the bubbling pool on the 
Isle of Beast. Please help me! 

Michael Montague 
East Freemantle, W.fl. 

^ ] A Montague - be restless 
^ | not for ye answers are sure 
and straight. Just let not the poison 
of your despair thy lips partake. 

After the gnomes leave, you should 
notice a partial sentence floating at 
the edge of the shore, retrieve it. You 
then goes to the realm of bookworm 
and the spelling bees. When you try 
to get a book, you’re met by 
Bookworm, who refuses to give you a 
book until you can offer something 
“interesting” in exchange. 

Walks to the amazing garden (beyond 
the swamp,) and take an iceberg let- 
tuce, and journey on until you’re at 
the entrance to Chessboard Land. 

Two feuding queens ask for advice on 
the matter of which queen shall have 
the “privilege” of presenting Cassima 
with a lump of coal at her wedding, 
and which will be left with the 
spoiled egg. As the red queen leaves, 
she drops a scarf, get it. 

Return to the shore, and use the 
map to go to the Isle of the Beast. 
There’s a creature that is half opos- 
sum and half dragon. Talks to the 
creature, and then offers the partial 
sentence to it. 

The creature decides to travel with 
you, journey on until you encounter a 
boiling pond. Tosses the iceberg let- 
tuce into it. Take the old lamp on the 
other side. Go until you see a man 
working on a garden, and a stone 
archer which follows his movements. 
Although the man invites you to 
come into the garden, note the gold 
glint in his eyes, don’t trust him. Take 
the brick. 

Return to the Isle of Wonder (use 
map) with the creature from the Isle 
of the Beast (who turns out to be a 
Dangling Participle) to the 
Bookworm, who will give you a rare 
book in exchange. 

Bubbling pool problem, see lettuce. 

In the Catacombs, you need the fol- 
lowing objects... The Red Scarf from 
Chessboard Land on the Isle of 
Wonder, the Hole-in-the-Wall from 
the Garden on the Isle of Wonder, the 
Brick from the Stone Archer scene on 
the Isle of the Beast, and the 
Tinderbox from the pawn shop on the 
Isle of the Crown. 

To stop the ceiling, throw the Brick 
found in the garden scene on the 
Isle of the Beast into the gears of the 
machine, it will stop. 

Riddle of Master Lu 

Oh great, great Oracle, 
please help me! In the 
Riddle of Master Lu, I have to wet 



down a particular rock on Easter 
Island, but I don’t know how! 

Please Help. 

Joel 

Sydney, NSW 

[ ^ | 7 /s easy Joel, just do this! At 
1 ^ 1 the Quarry find the rocks in 

the center of the stick/shell map. The 
symbols (starfish, seahore, shark 
tooth, scallop) can be found on vari- 
ous stone heads in the quarry. Use 
the map and these four heads as a 
guide to locate the rocks - a large red 
boulder and a small grey rock in front 
of it. Try moving the small rock. 

Return to the beach. Use the pull 
cord to plug one end of the whale 
bone. Fill the whale bone with water 
from the ocean. Use the water on the 
clay in front of the small grey rock. 
Move the rock. Take the rongorongo 
tablet from the fissure in the large 
red boulder. 

Here’s a little more help while I’m at 
it. Rig a trap for the bad guys inside 
the shed. Enter the shed through the 
window. Take the spark plug. Use the 
spark plug to loosen the gas tank 
plug. Use the pull cord on the wire. 
Use the pull cord on the gas tank 
plug. Take the gas tank cap. Light the 
lighter. Put the lit lighter on the floor 
near where the gas will run out. Pull 
the power cable to create a distur- 
bance. Get out the window fast! 

Enjoy your little romantic interlude 
with Samantha before heading back 
to Peru. 

Ultima 7 

H l’m stuck in Ultima 7. 

How do you solve the puz- 
zle inside the cube generator that 
involves walkways and bridges? 

I’m trying to follow Elizbeth and 
Abraham to Buccaneer’s Den. 
Jeffrey Engert 
Wangi Wanci, NSW 

. Sorry Jeffrey, there’s no defi- 

^ nite solution for you. You’ll 

have to nut it out yourself. The puz- 
zle basically involves walking on cer- 


tain spots of the walkway that trigger 
the bridges to other parts. Trouble is, 
some spots remove other bridges as 
well. The easiest way is to just save 
the game a lot. 

It’s hard, but not impossible. Look 
out for the fire fields and fireballs. 
Another hint: you’ll cover almost 
wo % of the walkways before you’re 
able to get to the center. After the 
Cube crumbles, take the little cube 
and head to Buccaneer’s Den. 

Ravenloft 

Please hear my call of 
help! I’m having trouble 
in Ravenloft! Where do I find the 
Ghoul Lord and where do I find 
the cemetery? Also, In the church, 
where do I find the pieces of the 
page to free the mirror? 

Arran Cook 

Ok Arran, from the caves 
west of Barovia, Go the 
wooded area. At the entrance to the 
caves, talk to the NPC cleric and have 
her join the party. Drop one of your 
other NPCs. Enter the caves. 

Use the Entry Seal by the first portal. 
An NPC fighter will not let you pass 
unless he joins your party. Drop the 
other NPC (not the cleric). Find the 
four jade keys to make your way to 
the Church Vestibule Key. Pick it up. 
You will not be able to pass though 
the last barrier unless you have the 
NPC cleric with you. Find the portal 
and go through it. Both NPC party 
members will take off. The wizard in 
the building in the woods west of 
Barovia is quite a strong magic user, 
so he may be a good choice as a 
party member. Return to Barovia and 
pick up NPCs to make a party of four 
again. Take the easternmost exit on 
the northern wall of Barovia and 
enter the church grounds. 

OLD CHURCH MAIN FLOOR 
Enter the church. Use the Vestibule 
Key on the circular lock by the fust 
door. Kill the hell hounds. Pick up 


w.A. 

* 





B ORACLE 



the Instruction to the Catalogue, 
Special Scroll of Cure Disease and 
Tome of Cursed Items. Read the 
Instruction to the Catalogue. You 
need the following items to return 
home: 

•The Catalogue from the Old 
Church 

•The red gem from the ghost* s 
house 

•The crown from the dead elven 
warrior 

•The feather from the Wereraven 
•The Tarot card from Castle 
Ravenloft, and 
•The Holy Symbol of Helm 

Collecting these items are the mini- 
mum you have to do to complete the 
game. Try talking to the mirror. Go 
downstairs. 

OLD CHURCH LOWER LEVEL s 

Find the Gold Church Key which will 
open some doors on this level. Find 
the four fragments and insert them 
into the Tome of Cursed Items. Find 
the Special Scrolls of Remove Curse 
and Atonement, and the Trimia 
Catalogue. Return to the main floor. 
Read the Tome by the mirror and to 
free the soul of the old cleric. Talk to 


the cleric. Ask him for the key to the 
cemetery. 

CEMETERY 

Leave and return to Barovia. Go to 
the house with the ghost. He will 
possess one of your characters, but 
it will not hinder you in any way 
unless you stray from the task which 
the ghost assigned you. Pick up the 
Bone Vault key then leave. Return to 
the church grounds and open the 
cemetery doors in the northeast cor- 
ner with the key from the old cleric. 
Enter the cemetery. 

Go to the tomb of the Ghoul Lord. Kill 
him. Get the Rod of Rebirth off the 
ground. When you exit the tomb, the 


ghost will leave you and give you a 
key which will open the door in the 
ghost’s house. Wait to collect the 
gem until you next visit the village. 
Get the two pouches of Golden Dust. 
Go to the mausoleum in the south 
eastern corner. Use a pouch of gold- 
en dust by one of the statues stand- 
ing outside the door of the mau- 
soleum. Talk to her and ask her to 
bless you. She will not do so yet, so 
go to the other statue on the other 
side of the door and use the other 
pouch of dust. Talk to the second 
spirit and ask her to bless you. Talk 
again to the first spirit and ask her to 
bless you. The banshee inside the 
mausoleum will now be gone. Enter 
the Elven Warrior’s Crypt. 

Normality 


radio). Get the Car /Automobile 
Battery by the stairs. 

Go up the stairs and get the Slumber 
Manual on the floor (and read it). 

Use the Current Receiver on the bare 
electrical wires by the bed. Use the 
Current Sender on the Battery. Use 
the Battery/Current Sender combina- 
tion on the Current Receiver. Go to 
the Toilet (in the game I hasten to 
add!). Stand on the Toilet and use 
the Air Vent From the Air Vent go for- 
ward and take the first left. Follow 
the tunnel round until you fmd a belt. 
Get the belt from the Air Vent and go 
forward. Take the first right, follow 
the tunnel round until you come to a 
second Air Vent. Look down and Use 
the Alarm Case to get the Debris 
Leave the ventilation system from 
where you came in and go to 
Changing Room 1 . Talk to the Tester. 
In the same room look for some lock- 
ers with “Tubby” written on them 
and open the fourth locker along 
( 2 nd down). Get the books in the 
locker and Examine them. Go back to 
the empty bed and put the Debris on 
it. Go to the Grinders (past the mock 
living area), read the Manual on the 
floor by the 
Extinguisher. Use the 
Belt with the 
Extinguisher. Use the 
Extinguisher. Get the 
Extinguisher. Use the 
Control Box. Use the 
Middle Grinder. Talk 
Heather and get your 
mission orders. Use the 
Extinguisher on one of 
the paint drums around 
the back of the factory. 
Use the Map to got to 
the Mint Mall. 

You don’t need to use 
the blow torch yet. 
Eventually, you just use 
the matches on it. 


B I am stuck in the “furni- 
ture factory” in Normality 
what do I do? Also how do you get 
onto the shop floor past the guard. 

I also can't light the blow torch to 
open the container door outside 
the factory. 

Leich Scopes 
Castlemaine, Vic. 


^ Rightio Leigh, Here’s the 
1 ^ 1 entire factory solution. 
Examine foot prints by the middle 
dumpster on the right hand side of 
the building. Get the Rusty Cog on 
the floor by the Red Container. Get 
the Oxy-Acetylene Torch by the fur- 
nace. Enter the building by the front 
door Use the ‘I am fat* T-Shirt on 
Kent. Talk to the receptionist [point 
out the T-Shirt]. Go through to the 
Hospitality Niche. Use the Coffee 
Machine/Contemporary Sculpture 
Get the coffee. Talk to Tiddler. 

Get the radio (you will only need the 
Current Receiver). Get the Current 
Sender (plugged into the wall by the 


The Pic 

H I have been 
playing The 
Dig now for about 6 
months! What do I have to do to 
get Maggie to come to me? I can 
get into the tomb and the pyramid 
but don’t know what else to do! 
James Dobbin 
Broken Hill, NSW 
^ Get Maggie to come to me! 
__■*_] Very descriptive James, 
where, in what circumstances? Blow 
it. I’ll put as much effort into the 
answer as you did with the question! 
If you’re referring to Maggie in the 
library, leave here there - look at the 
consoles and leave. 

If you’re referring to rescuing her, 
here’s how you do it. 

Head for the map spire and go to the 


nest. Assess the situation. You need 
Brink. So head back to the tomb 
spire. Go to the cave interior and use 
the flashlight on the bat creatures. 
Head out to the platform and steal 
Brink’s crystal stash. 

Brink now cooperates with Boston. 
Return to the nest and Brink will 
accompany you. Talk to Brink about 
the monster and he suggests a plan. 
Go up to the falls source. Push the 
rock. Return to the nest and Boston 
explains what he has done. Talk to 
Brink about the grate. This invokes 
the sequence that rescues Maggie. 
After this. Brink demands his life 
crystals back, takes all of them and 
runs off. 

Lead Maggie back across the light 
bridges to the museum spire and 
fetch more life crystals from behind 
the weakened, now broken, door. 
Then go across the light bridges to 
the tomb spire. 

Mania c Mansion 

I know you will scream 
over this game because 
it’s a LucasArts game (Maniac 
Mansion), but I just want to know 
what to feed the man eating plant? 
Shane Odmark 
Albion Park, NSW 

Shane, good on ya for play- 
ing one of the true classics. 
Fear not, Maniac Mansion isn’t on 
the Oracle “Slander asker” list. 

Here’s your answer. 

To get Edna out of her room, wait 
outside her room (Bernard), and 
switch to Dave. Use the newly 
repaired phone in the library and dial 
the above number. As soon as it 
rings, switch to Bernard and enter 
the room. Head over to the night- 
stand and get the small key, then go 
up the ladder. Turn on the light and 
examine room, open the painting and 
you will discover the safe. 

Switch to Dave and phone Edna again, 
quickly get Bernard out of the room. 
Close Edna’s door on the way out, go 
into the Radio room and wait. Then go 
to the plant room and use jar of water 
with man eating plant, then use can of 
Pepsi with plant. As it is full, it is now 
safe, go over and climb through the 
hatch which leads to the telescope. 

To get the Pepsi, way back at the 
beginning of the game, Get Bernard to 
open the door next to the Grandfather 
clock. You are now in the kitchen. 
Should you come across Edna here, 
you will end up in the dungeon. If this 
happens, get another person like 
Dave caught, and Dave can the push 
the loose brick under the barred win- 
dow while Bernard escapes. Assuming 
all is well, have Bernard get the flash- 
light on the counter, then go east, 
open refrigerator, pick up Pepsi. 






CODE 


O O ‘ 

A SPECIAL CARING PAGE FOR CLUELESS NEWBIES 


SWGHOST = Toggle clipping mode 
SWMAP = Toggle automap 
CONFIG = Displays “help config” (?) 

QUIT = Quits game 
CLEAR = Appears to do nothing (?) 

SWTRIX = Turn on Bunny Rockets w/ 
Rocket launcher (#5) 

SWNAME = Appears to do nothing (?) 
DUMPSOUNDS = Says “dumped sounds 
to dbg.foo” and creates that file 
SOUND * Says “help sound” 

SWWAVE = Appears to do nothing (?) 
WINPACHINKO = Lets u win the pachinko 



Blade Warrior 

Just type self healing then the vitality will be 
filled to the end of the bar. 

Killing Time 

SCOOBYSNACK = 200% Energy 
IDKFA = Instant death 
OPENSEZME = Open door 
BODYBAGS = Kill enemies 
IAMAPOOPHEAD - God 
WHOOPDANG = All weapons and ammo 
Unknown functions, have fun! 

BURGER 
EDGE 
STRYDER 
CRYPTO 
MAD DOG 
CHOW YUN FAT 
JOHN WOO 
GARYLAKE 

Moto Racer 

When the system asks for a name, type in one 
of the following. The game will beep and ask for 
your name again, now you can type in your real 
name with the feature enabled. 

CDNALSI = All tracks enabled 
CTEKCOP = Pocket bikes 
CESREVER = Reverse all the courses 

Q uake Mission Pack 2 

Level skip: RxMy 

x = the episode number 
/ = the level number, 
ie. The last level is R2M8 

Need for Speed 2 

In ANY screen type these codes: 

Hollywood = Bonus Track 

pioneer = gives all secret cars a very powerful 

engine 

bus = the yellow school bus 
semi = the big truck with no trailor 
armytruck = the army truck 
vwbug = the VW Beatle 
vo I vo = the Volvo station wagon 
bmw = the bmw 
me r cedes = the mercedes 
miata = the Madza Miata 
jeepyj = the Jeep YJ 
quattro = the Audi Quattro 
vanagon = the VW Combi 
landcruiser = the Toyota Landcruiser 

Shadow Warrior shareware 

Press T* and then enter the code. 

SWCHAN = Toggle god mode 
SW GIMME = Gives you all items 
SW GREED = Enable every cheat 
SWTREKxy =Warp to level (x=episode [o=first], 
y=level [1 = first]) 

SWLOC = Display framerate in upperleft corner 
SWRES = Change resolution 
SWSTART = Restart level 


| game and get an item 

Project Paradise 

Press T for Pause then 
type in following codes 
MAGIC = All Spells 
METAL = All Weapons 
EVIL = All PowerUps available 

Level Codes 

HELLGATE 
DREAM EVIL 
DEMON 
BLACK SUN 
BOGART 
FIRESPELL 
PANDEMONIUM 
CYBERSPACE 

Quiver ___ 

The following cheats work in the shareware 
version 

WUSS = God mode. Enemies guys can’t hurt 
you 

NUKE = Kills all enemies 

MMAP = On automap (TAB) will display entire 

map 

The following cheats work in the Registered ver- 
sion: 

WUSS = God mode enemies can't hurt you 

NUKE = Kills all enemies 

MMAP =« On automap (TAB) will display entire 

map 

PANSY = All weapons, all ammo 
BUTTHEAD = All keys, all objectives 
STUN = Temporarily stuns enemies 
WARP = jumps to a specific level. 

General Tip 

On episode 1 Level 1 find the secret room in the 
area where you first start. Watch for a ceiling 
light. Space bar will open the secret area. Here 
you will find many weapons, making the rest of 
Level 1 a breeze. 

Street Racer 

Go to the GAME OPTIONS and for the option 
u Cup Password use the following codes. 
TRAFIK = SILVER CUP 
NEJATI = GOLD CUP 
DOUGAL = PLATIUM CUP 
TURGAY= ADVANCE OPTIONS/SECRET 
I LEVEL and CHARACTERS 


G- Nohe 

At the Mission computer (where you can select 
Game, Options, etc) press ctrl+Fi . 

From there, enter one or more of the following 
codes. All the codes are case sensitive with cor- 
rect codes confirmed by a beep. 

Redtop Trod = Select all single player mis- 
sions from the mission Menu. 

Mystery cheats! We haven’t tested these, so go 
wild! Who knows what could happen... 

Half Libel = ??? 

Had A Nude On = ??? 

Brass Clue = ??? 

Mother Mourn Us = ??? 

Chaste Coed = View the end video 
sequences. 

Rotted Drop = ??? 

Horny Elk Leer = ??? 

O f Sarge = ??? 

Swiss Throat = ??? 

A Mere Fart = ??? 

A Scramble On = ??? 

CTRL -hi = Activates Invinciblity 
CTRL+Z = Refills ammo 
CTRL+F = Destroy current target 

iMPERIUH GALACTICA 

While in the game hold down SHIFT . and type 
KAROLY to activate the cheat codes. Then just 
hit the correct key to activate a cheat, 
c = all colonies, and inventions 
c = second time gives you cheats on planets 
v = +100,000 credits 

5 = Rank 1 (LT) 

6 = Rank 2 (CPT) 

7 = Rank 3 (CMDR) 

8 = Rank 4 (ADM) 

9 = Rank 5 (Gr ADM) 

There are some side effects to using cheat codes. 
For instance, When the cheat codes are activated 
in IG there are some minor graphical glitches in 
the lower left hand comer of the game. These 
appear to be 4 flashing “o”s stacked on top of 
each other. Also the story line gets out of whack 
if you skip levels. If you increase your rank to 5, 
you will see the map to the whole galaxy. If you 
move your fleet to an area you are not supposed 
to be in yet, and reduce your rank back to 1, you 
will lose your fleet. 

If you are having a problem with the game due 
to the use of cheat codes, you will have to load a 
saved game from before you cheated or start a 
new game. 


IpII'U 



Qao 

o4> 

ii, 

- j < 

el 

isl 

tdl 

h 


Are you experienced? 



HjWu©IJ2£) 


All of the Power, none of the responsibility 

by Dan Cohen 


■ ave you 
finished 
. Command 

& Conquer: Red Alert as both 
the Allied and Soviet armies? 

Are you stuck on a mission and 
you refuse to play anymore? Or 
are you a traditionalist and wish 
that you could use the units from 
Command & Conquer II? 

With the following ingredients 
you can expand Command & 
Conquer: Red Alert beyond your 
wildest imagination: a PC (a 
Pentium is ideal), a Command & 
Conquer: Red Alert CD-ROM, A 
modem (28.8k bps or better rec- 
ommended), and a connection to 
an Internet Service Provider. With 
these tools you can access a vast 
array of patches, editors, extra mis- 
sions and online battles that are 
flaring up 24 hours a day. This will 
(once again) ensure that your 
Command & Conquer: Red Alert 
CD will not venture too far away 
from your CD-ROM drive. 

Welcome to the Next Level 

There are countless new levels 
available on the internet, and there 
are more appearing daily as this 
craze turns into a cult. There are 
countless individual levels to 
download which are very small 
(around 10k) and take just seconds 
to download, or you can download 
a compilation of 20 or more indi- 
vidual levels (about 150k - 1 to 2 
minutes to download). Some Red 
Alert fanatics have created entire 
scenarios, involving several mis- 
sion levels, an overall plot, a brief- 


ing for each 
mission and 
cut scenes from the Command & 
Conquer: Red Alert CD. These peo- 
ple have spent more time on this 
game than just playing! 

The files you download are usually 
compressed using the ‘zip’ format. 
To decompress the files you will 
need one of two popular windows 
utilities - WinZip or Stuffit 
Expander for Windows 95. The 
installation procedure can vary for 
each of the various add-ons you 
download and can be fairly tricky, so 
be sure to read the text file enclosed 
with each of the archives carefully. 

Important Note - It is unlikely 
that all of these files have been 
checked for viruses before they are 
placed online. Please be sure to reg- 
ularly scan your computer for virus- 
es, particularly if you are download- 
ing files from the internet. 

Patched up and ready to go! 

There are numerous patches 
available for Command & 
Conquer: Red Alert. One such 
patch file is called “ultRA" 
(Ultimate Red Alert - 
http: / /ultra. gamestats.com/), 
which was created because the 
author wasn't satisfied with the 
final job from the authors of Red 
Alert, Westwood Studios. ‘ultRA’ 
works in single player and skir- 
mish modes, but it is essentially 
created for using in multi-player 
mode. ‘ultRA’ is the most 
impressive patch that I found; it 
decompresses straight into your 
Red Alert directory using a 
WinZip self extractor, and con- 
tains a batch file that when run, 
loads the ultRA files before 


launch- 
ing Red Alert, 
and will remove 
them once you are fin- 
ished playing. ‘ultRA’ is 2.9 
megabytes and should take 
approximately 20 minutes on a 
33.6k modem. Other patches can 
allow things such as hospitals, 
armed harvesters, enhanced unit 
speed and increased hit points 
for any item within the game. 
Once again, when you download 
these add-ons read the text file 
that comes with it for a brief 
explanation and instructions on 
how to active the changes. The 
text file will also let you know 
whether the file is intended for 
DOS or Windows use, but the 
majority of files will work on 
either, or there are alternate ver- 
sions for either platform. Not all 
of the patches work, some of 
them froze my computer or 
crashed Red Alert. Although this 
was annoying I did not suffer 
any long term consequences 
from these crashes. 


*> Red Alchemist Pio (StaitUp) 


D.I.Y. Maps/Levels/Scenarios 

Now that you have witnessed the 
efforts of many of the other Red 
Alert ‘hacks’, why not give it a try 
yourself. To start with you need a 
map - you can use an existing map, 
or you can use EdWin which comes 
with the Red Alert installation. With 
EdWin you can edit any existing map 
(it must be in the Red Alert directory) 
or you can start your own from 
scratch using the massive library of 
ground textures provided. There are 
other editors available that do more 
than just edit maps; Red Alchemist 
(http://users.aol.eom/commandhq/r 
a/main.html) - This program gives 
you a very simple point and click 
overview of nearly every variable in 
the game, allowing you to change 
such things as hit points for units 
and buildings, the speed at which 
units recharge/rearm, adding 
weapons to existing units and much 
more. This is a must-get for anyone 
interested in getting involved with 
editing rules. It's is smaller than the 
other files (736k), and a lot easier to 
operate. 


jprnicr-r 

J .» i) J 1 II / i 

Into Ciinlcl 


It _ 


Got Red Alert? On the Net? Go here! 



File Edit Special Functions Settings Help 


Select the group you 
wish to edit: 



Select Unit: 



Unit Being Edited: 

Ore Truck 


Default Unit 


Default All 


Reload Values 


Reload Patch 


Save Changes 


Save Patch As 


Ammo: 

Armor: 


heavy 




Cost: 


1400 


r Invisible f" Explodes 


Owner: |7 Allies [7 Soviet 

P Double Owned 

Primary Weapon: Secondary Weapon: 


T esIaZap 




Turning Speed: 

Passengers: 

T ech Level: 

|7 T racked 
P Crushable 
P Sensors 


Speed: 

Sight: 

Strength: 


E 


j600 


P No Moving Fire 
[7 Self Healing 


Pushing the value envelope. $89.95 never bought so much 


RedEdit 

( http://www.geocities.com/TimesSqu 
are/5524/redalert.html) - This pro- 
gram is Shareware and is around 1 
megabyte compressed. With this 
program you can change just about 
anything, but the mixture of win- 
dows and DOS makes it rather 
clumsy to use. 

RJLC.K. - Red Alert Construction 
Kit 

(http://www.geocitUs.com/TimesSqu 
are/ Arcade/ 5553/rack.html) - This 
editor seems to be fairly powerful, 
but the lack of documentation 
makes it difficult to use. It down- 
loads each of the individual graph- 
ic icons to your hard disk and yet 
edits the maps in a very close grid, 
placing buildings, units or terrain. 
R.A.C.K. will also allow you to cre- 
ate and edit rules.ini files. 

In some cases people have 
extracted the cut scenes from the 
Red Alert CD-ROM and used them 
to enhance their multi-level add-on 
into a scenario. This can be done 



Downloads A 
Editors 


by using a very small DOS-based 
utility called ‘ Amnia’ , which 
accesses the movie files from the 
CD , and if you wish you can save 
it to your hard disk. 

M.P.O.G. - Multi-Player Online 
Gaming 

Red Alert can be played live 
online with up to 3 other players 
from around the world. Before we 
launch into a multi-player game we 
have to connect to a server to find 
a willing opponent (or opponents), 
and that requires some extra soft- 
ware. One such method is to use 
Westwood Chat, which is installed 
after the main installation. If (like 
me) you chose not to install 
Westwood Chat during the installa- 
tion, you can download Westwood 
Chat from http://www.westwood.com. 
To use Westwood Chat, choose 
‘Internet Game’ from the main 
menu within Command & 
Conquer: Red Alert. 

The other software options for 


powijj M ° re Wits than a Ha|1 °* farr » cr! 

ccmMand 

^^COMpUifcR 

rv ™ *-\ , w s 1 

All die power none of the responsibility. 

W 


Who would you choo&r? 


lUMHOH r 

Type 14 Red + Alert** in your search engine and use your 20 hours a month 
checking out 1% of them 


country they will represent in the 
upcoming battle. One user 
chooses to start a game, the 
other(s) select the game and then 
click ‘Join’. Once all of the com- 
batants are present, the game 
owner clicks ‘Start’ and then? 
Well, it’s on for young and old!! 
Remember, the enemy now 
thinks, behaves and acts just like 
you - or do they? 

Red Alert Web Sites 

Here are some web sites that are 
full of information, updates and 
patch files. 

Westwood Studios - 

(http://www.westwood.com) The 
creators of the C&C series. This 
page has the latest updates, news 
and events. 


£dn Speaal Function! Sdtingt Help 


Select the group you 
with to edit: 


■jgrjjajj HE . : 

nwiagWi 



Q j 






Unit Being Edited: 

Rangei 


Default Unit 


Default £1 


Reload Values 

Reload /*atch 


Save Changes | 


Save Patch A* 


~Tj| Coet 1 600 | 

r Invisible T Esplodet 

Owner p Allies T Soviet 

r Double Owned 

Pnaiaiy Weapon Secondaty Weapon: 

jj 





A tool for tools to tool around with 

MPOG are Kahn ( http://www.star - 
gatenetworks.com ) and Kali 
(http://www.kali.net). These pro- 
grams fool Red Alert into think- 
ing you are on an ordinary IPX 
network, and using either pro- 
gram you connect to any one of a 
number of servers and strike up 
a challenge. Essentially both pro- 
grams do the same thing, but 
both have limited functionality in 
their shareware form (read the 
enclosed documentation for the 
exact details of the respective 
shareware licences). Once you 
are connected to a games server, 
it’s simply a matter of baiting 
other eager users from around 
the world to a challenge. When 
you have beaten your war drums 
loud enough you make your way 
into Red Alert and select 
‘Multiplayer Game’ and then 
‘Network’ (Note - do not use 
‘Internet Game’ if you are using 
Kahn or Kali). When you enter 
network mode you will be placed 
in The Lobby’, where players 
meet and select what colour and 


The Red Alert Outpost - 

(http://www.mother.com/~erichull) A 
very informative page including 
some great add ons and references 

The Tesla Coll - 

(http://www.geocities.com/SiliconVal 
ley /Pines 15268/) Another fanatic 
Red Alter home page. You will find 
the latest patches and information 
about Red Alert events. 

The Chronosphere - 
http://www.igl.net/ra/ 

Blitz's Red Alert Page - 
(http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~al 
pat/red.htm) The home site for 
‘Blitz Rules’. Contains the very 
useful ‘Red Alert Construction 
Guide’ for creating missions. 

The Ultimate Red Alert Site- 
(http://www.gamestats.com/ultra.ht 
m) The home for Ultimate Red 
Alert. Latest patches, information 
and contests. 

Kahn MPOG Software - 
(http://www.stargatenetworks.comD 
Download the latest Kahn. 

Kali MPOG Software - 
(http://www.kali.net) Home site for 
Kali internet gaming software. 







LETTERS 


write to PC PowerPlay 
LETTERS 
PO BOX 634 

STRAWBERRY HILLS, NSW 2012 
letters@pcpowerplay.next.com.au 


[HEW THING .H 


Letter of the month! 
Win a subscription! 


Each month we'll choose a letter that we 
think is THE BEST that month. Not the fun- 
niest (although we reserve the right to hand 
out a freebie if a letter makes us laugh 
HARD), but the most intelligent, the most 
incisive, the most informed. 

The winner gets a 

- Existing subscribers get 6 months 
added to their term. How good is that! 


Lmttmr of thm Month 

Ignorance is not always 
bliss 

Before I say anything else I have a 
few things I must get off my chest. 

Firstly, in response to P. Gorter’s 
statement that Quake’s “graphics 
are really, really shit!”. Might I 
suggest you try playing it at 
something other than 320x200, 
like 640x480+. Then if you still 
think they’re shit, invest (Yes! It is 
an investment) in a 3Dfx based 
card and play GL Quake (or even a 
Rendition Verite based card, 
although GL Quake eats Rendition 
enhanced Quake for breakfast!). 
Otherwise, speak ye not of which 
ye obviously don’t understand. 

Secondly, in regard to A Wade’s 
comments on Windows 95. There 
is nothing (really) wrong with 
Windows 95. Now before everyone 
starts screaming, I used to be a 
DOS fanatic and absolutely hated 
Windows 3.x (and lower) with a 
passion and so was obviously 
very sceptical about Windows 95. 

I have been using PCs since DOS 
1.0 (before Windows even existed, 
when 640k was all anyone will 
ever need! Hahahahaha! Good one 
Bill!) and I must say that Windows 
95 is probably the best thing to 
happen to gaming on PCs. It is 
technically superior (In most 
aspects) and allows developers to 
create games that would just be 
too time consuming to develop 
under DOS. For example, how 
many 3D enhanced titles do you 
see running under DOS as com- 
pared to Windows 95? Not many! 

It is simply to much effort to sup- 
port the various hardware acceler- 
ators there are out there, whereas 
under Windows 95 it is just a mat- 
ter of writing to Direct3D or the 
appropriate device driver. 

Now, I still use DOS on my 
machine for older games and new 
ones that aren’t Windows 95 
native. And no it is not reboot to 
DOS mode or press F4 to boot to 
old OS. It is DOS 7.x that lurks 
underneath Windows 95, which it 
is quite easy to setup a multiple 
boot config.sys to boot to either 
Windows 95 or DOS 7.x. (E-Mail 
me if you want to know how, or I 
could be persuaded to submit an 
article to Random Access if there 
is enough interest). 

Finally, maybe if more people 
actually bothered to learn how to 
use their computer’s OS properly 


they would not have so many 
problems? 

Well, now that I’ve gotten that of 
my chest. Congratulations on a 
great magazine. It’s good to final- 
ly see a quality Aussie mag. Keep 
up the good work guys and gals 
and I’ll keep buying the mag. 

Until next we have statements 
born of ignorance! 

Ashley Guild 
Brisbane, QLD 
XTC@m140.aone.net.au 



Rendition Verite 


Congratulations, PC PowerPlay 
on making a great PC gaming 
mag, and on the new format, it 
really does make it better looking, 
etc. The contents in it are great, I 
especially like your new 3D section, 
but I have a few gripes with the 
way you handle the 3D Cards. 
Mostly the Voodoo Graphics 3Dfx 
and the Rendition Verite. 

To me it looks as though for 
some strange reason you are a tad 
biased, and you prefer the 3Dfx. I 
say this because you keep saying 
how Tomb Raider and Quake are 
enhanced with the 3Dfx chipset, 
and I haven’t heard you once say 
that they are also enhanced with 
the Verite. The current Quake or 
Vquake (Verite Quake) as it’s 
called for the Verite, is quite good 
and a lot better than the normal 
version but isn’t as good as the 
GL version of Quake, simply 
because the GL drivers for the 
Verite chipset are not yet finished. 
They are being done as I write 
this, and will probably be done by 
the time this letter is printed 
(hopefully it will be printed). 

Tomb Raider for the Verite is sim- 
ply stunning and I think it looks 
just the same as on the 3Dfx. 

Secondly, the other reason I 
think that you are wrong was 
because of your 

Formula 1 review, you kept say- 
ing about how it’s enhanced for 
the 3Dfx, and saying that you 
NEED one for the game to work. 
WRONG!!!!! It is also enhanced for 
the Verite and looks great. I think 
you may have been playing a beta 
version of the game and only the 
3Dfx part of the game was finished 
or close to being finished. As the 
game is clearly Rendition Ready, 
straight from the box, and here are 
some quotes straight from 
Psygnosis: “Psygnosis is convinced 
that with technology such as 


Rendition’s Verite, the PC is 
becoming capable of displaying the 
stunning 3D graphics which are 
the hallmark of arcade machines. 
For blazing fast racing games like 
Formula 1, this means that our 
game design can be fully realised.” 

Thirdly, in issue 12 of your 3D 
Technews you were talking about 
games enhanced by the 3Dfx, 2 of 
them I know for certain are also 
enhanced for the Verite. They are 
Scorched Planet and Battle Arena 
Toshinden (you even get Battle 
Arena Toshinden with the 3D 
Blaster PCI!!). 

Lastly, I think there has been 
quite a lot of news, and happen- 
ings concerning Rendition espe- 
cially if you’re connected to the 
net. A lot of people have sites dedi- 
cated to the Rendition Verite 
chipset, and if you pop by 
Rendition’s, and there is even a 
Game Park where arcade video 
games are supported by the 
Rendition. They need high quality, 
stunning graphics at good speed, 
and Rendition fits the description. 

Thanks, 

Luke "Poona” Peterson 

Mooroolbark, Victoria 
Nellson@onaustralia.com.au 

Regarding Formula 1 from 
Psygnosis , you’re right and we’re 
wrong. The info we had from 
Psygnosis at the time of printing was 
that the game would only support 
}T>fx. The final release supports: 
jDfic, Rendition , Matrox Mystique 
and 3D Labs Permedia. 

In respect to our alleged bias 
towards the }Dfx, we see ALL the 
games that are 3D accelerated run- 
ning on ALL the supported systems 
and the simple truth is that the }Dfx 
versions look considerably better than 
their Rendition equivalents. That 
said , we use a Rendition Verite (a jD 
Blaster) as the main video card in the 
PC PowerPlay office machine, I 
(Ben) in my own machine also use 
the Rendition as the main card and I 
love it. Both machines also have a 
}Djx installed. Reason: nothing is 
faster than a Rendition for non-opti- 
mised }D games like F1GP2, and it’s 
a nice feeling to know that your sys- 
tem will support whatever a game 
needs... The Rendition’s programma- 
ble RISC core inspires faith for the 
future of the card, as does the excellent 
driver support. 

The Rendition is still a major con- 
tender in the 3D market, going back 
to PowerPlay #8 we rated it the best 
jD accelerator available. That was 



before the jDfec appeared though , and 
our subsequent tests in issue #10 
showed the }Dfx to be the superior 3 D 
solution. We don't regard the “3D 
Race” as anywhere near over and will 
continue to give you every bit of info 
we get on this most important devel- 
opment in PC gaming. 


DOS lives! 

I’d just like to say how much I 
love your magazine. I was shocked 
when I saw your first issue at the 
newsagent. An Australian maga- 
zine that covered PC games, and 
only PC games. It was great. But I 
have a point to make in this letter. 
Simply put, Win ‘95 sucks. It was 
the worst gaming environment I 
have used in years. It's so slow and 
useless. You need a processor that 
hasn’t even conceived yet to run 
the bloody thing, and if you don’t 
want General Protection Faults 
every five minutes you need to buy 
a crate of RAM chips. For example, 
My Grandparents recently bought 
a P100 with 16 meg of RAM, and 
Win 95 (the useable job back then) 
and they also got a scanner. 

That was fine, unless you wanted 
to scan something. Getting the pic- 
ture wasn’t the problem, editing it 
was! If you wanted to sharpen it, or 
double its size, you’d set it off, and 
you can go mow the lawn, have a 
shower, eat lunch and watch a 
movie in full before it will have fin- 
ished its task. Then I got the same 
program they were using for edit- 
ing and put it on my P166, 32 meg 
of RAM, Win 3.11 and DOS 6.22. 
And it takes a matter of seconds for 
a picture ‘round 60KB to sharpen, 
when on the Win 95 machine it 
would take around 10 minutes. I 
know what your thinking, “of 
course it’s faster, he’s got a faster 
computer”. Sure, but 10 times 
faster! I don't think so! Why can’t 
we just use DOS for 10 more years? 

I also hate the way Microsoft 
control the game industry by 
making all the cool games Win 
95 only. I can’t keep count of all 
the Win 95 only games I've 
missed out on. And now, by the 
sound of it, I can’t get a 3D accel- 
erator because I can’t use Direct 
X or Direct 3D. Bill Gates proba- 
bly hasn’t touched a computer in 
a decade. He obviously didn’t 
write Win 95. Let’s hope Win 97 
is worth the wait, and is much 
improved for the sake of the 
industry. 


Anyhow, thanks a lot and see you 
in the future. 

Yours sincerely, 

Mark Douglas 
grahark@tpgi.com.au 
Forget everything you’ve heard 
about Win 95 - it NEEDS 32Mb 
RAM minimum. Anything less and 
you’re asking for trouble. Try upgrad- 
ing the P100 (RAM is stupidly cheap 
right now, no excuses !) to 32Mb and 
see what a difference it makes. 

I think you demonstrated clearly 
where you’re coming from in your last 
paragraph. It’s not Microsoft that 
make “ the cool games Win 95 only” - 
developers can make their new games 
for whatever platform they choose. 

Most choose Win 95 - does that not tell 
you something? As for all the games 
you’ve “ missed out on”, your P166, 
32Mb is a fine Win 95 platform, and if 
you insist on maintaining this stand 
simply because " Win ‘95 sucks” then 
power be to you comrade, you keep the 
faith while the rest of us get on with 
enjoying amazing new games that 
don’t need any configuration grief. 

You “ can’t get a 3D accelerator 
because I can’t use Direct X or Direct 
3D”, well, get Win 95 and you’ll no 
longer have this problem, simple really. 

Oh, and “ Bill Gates probably has- 
n’t touched a computer in a 
decade”... Yeah, good one! 

9 , 


to the Thrustmaster layout and 
think it is the best compromise. Of 
course, if they were able to go one 
better they could add gear change 
paddles as an option and cover all 
the bases couldn’t they? 

Garry Hutcheson 
hutch@mailhost.ultra.net.au 




Full thrust 

I have read your recent review of 
controllers and want to give you MY 
opinion of the Thrustmaster steering 
wheels. I actually have the Ti and 
have not used any other. Not that I 
think it is the greatest wheel, it is 
more that I can not afford any other. 
Anyway your magazine has com- 
mented a couple of times that the 
ergonomics are all wrong and they 
are NOT. True the T2 does have a 
gear stick... well so do all forms of 
motor sport except Formula 1. Indy 
Cars, Touring cars and any manual 
road car you can name have gear 
sticks. As for Rally cars well they con- 
tinue to go sideways one handed and 
it doesn’t seem to affect them! I 
should say you are all girls for not 
being able to do the same but I won’t 
because that would be rude. 

AS for the pedals being close 
together, while I do agree with you 
I believe all competitive race cars 
have their pedals close together 
and besides most top drivers these 
days left foot break so the close 
pedals are not a problem. 

As you can see I am quite partial 


Need for Win 95 speed 

Nice mag. Anyway I share Adam 
Wade’s views in the May issue. I 
share his concern about the lack of 
DOS games and I dislike Bill Gates 
as much as any frustrated 
Macintosh owner. I recently pur- 
chased the much anticipated NFS2. 
Yeh it looked good on that back of 
the box, and I knew it would run 
decently on my computer; well so I 
thought. It seems EA have sacrificed 
the game in the name of Bill Gates. 
NFS2 runs like a dog under Win 95 
and I am hugely disappointed with 
the end product. To run NFS2 in 
high res at a smooth pace you need 
more than your average computer. I 
tried it on my friend’s computer 
which is a P133, 32MB RAM and a 
3D Blaster and it ran jerky. Win 95 
robs your computer of its memory 
and its maximum performance, and 
I think that if EA were true to the 
customers they would have built a 
better game engine that ran in DOS 
rather than selling out to Bill Gates. 
Not only would this allow more peo- 
ple to buy the game because of its' 
ability to run on low spec comput- 
ers, but it would increase the overall 
acceptance from PC gamers as a 
good game overall. It seems that EA 
think they can produce any game 
and it will sell. Well, I won’t buy 
many more of their games. They 
should have taken a page out of 
Geoff Crammond’s F1GP2 on how 
to make a good racing game. Sure, 
it’s Fi but you can apply the basic 
structure to any game, 
peter Harvey 
mrsnel@merlin.net.au 


9_ 


things like “Here’s a nice Quake 
screenshot. No reason for it, we 
just liked it” in issue twelve, is 
what I’m talking about, it makes 
what you read more interesting. I 
do have a small prob though. 

Finally, is it sheer co-incidence 
that the cover of your issue twelve 
is the same graphic as the one on 
the PC-Gamer mag (The MDK 
pic), which came out at the same 
time, or is there some shifty busi- 
ness going on between you two 
mag companies??? 

Keep up the good work anyhow :-) 

BEN 

ben@nectar.com.au 

We were given that artwork as a 
“ custom job for PowerPlay”. 

" Custom ”, as it turns out, does not 
apparently mean exclusive... 

9 


1 


1 

Everything’s funny 

I'm writing this to encourage the 
amount of humour that you 
include in your mags each month. 

I have noticed that over twelve 
issues you have stepped up the way 
you classify various aspects of the 
computer world. I think that the 
humour you’re including is bril- 
liant, ( I tend to get more out of the 
mag than the CD) although I still 
use the CD occasionally. Little 


Patriot games 

Oh, at last! I stopped buying 
games magazines about 3-4 years 
ago, because my Amiga was pass- 
ing its use-by date and the reviews 
of things I couldn’t play were too 
depressing. 

Now a few years on, I’m doing a 
computing degree and have finally 
gone into debt to get myself anoth- 
er computer. It’s a bit of a beast. :) 

So I was strolling through the 
newsagent looking for something to 
get me back up to date, and I saw 
your magazine. You can’t even hope 
to comprehend how happy I was a 
few minutes after picking it up - here 
was a quality magazine, with up to 
date reviews and a touch of style, and 
it was ^AustralianJ! Things have 
changed for the better it seems. 

I noticed in my first issue com- 
plaints in the letters section about 
English mags - well, whether people 
agree with me or not, you guys have 
managed to recreate what for me 
were the reasons I would never buy 
anything but an English mag - you're 
funny, and not so bloody American. 

Finally, there are advertisements 
for companies in this country 
(without any weird - my god, I 
don’t even have one on the key- 
board - you know, little English 
money squiggle things) and yet not 
too many (I MO), no fine print 
telling me I can't enter the compe- 
titions, and no obscure references 
to foreign current events. 

Well, what can I say? Keep it up, 
and I’ll be back for more. 

Thanks, 

John Dalton 

Hobart, Tas. 


[pus 




Regression session with David. 


in the depths of the Underworld 
(forging friendships with some, 
making enemies of others) was 
only one of the many brilliant 
things about this game. Having the 
first true 3D graphics engine was 
another. A third was discovering a 
secret passage inside the goblins' 
toilet bowl. But please don’t ask 


me what on earth 1 
■was doing there in 
the first place. 

-fi Formula One 
Grand Prix wobbles 
past in a dreamy 
It looks hope- 
lessly outdated to 
my eyes now, and 
plays somewhat less than realisti- 
cally, but it remains a significant- 
influence on my formative years. 
When I was doing my HSC, I 
somehow managed to find the 
time to run a full-length season at 
100% race distance, edging out 
Ayrton Senna for the 
Championship. After a while it 
became a case of, if I could man- 
age to keep the car on the track 
then I would win easily. But 
thanks to the “idiosyncrasies” of 
the computer drivers, I would fre- 
quently experience that terrible 
moment when it dawns that that 
overtaking manoeuvre was just a 
tad ambitious and I would soon be 
watching the rest of the race from 
the side of the track. 

Next I see three very familiar faces 
float by in their portable toilets. Yes, 
it's Bernard, Laveme and Hoagie 
from Day Of The Tentacle. I know 
Sam & Max and Monkey Island 
have their fans (it’s surprising how 
few people mention Sierra in the 
context of great adventure games), 
but DOTT really did it for me. It’s 


W alking into the 

PowerPlay office one 
innocuous Tuesday 
morning, I tripped over a moun- 
tain of competition entries, 
sprawled with little dignity across 
the room and slammed my head 
■'•upon a discarded Microsoft 
Sidewinder joystick 
unconscious, amid 
useless games that 
take home and 
that Ben never 
gaming life selectiv 
^riately flashes 
Which was quite handy really, cos I 
was just about to write an article 
on my fave games ever. Look, it’s 
going all swirly! 

Back to 1990, and there I am 
playing Jordan Mechner’s impossi- 
bly cool Prince Of Persia. In 
between jousts with skeletons 
Across crumbling bridges and leap- 
ing death-defyingly through those 
clomping steel guillotines, I took 
lime out to create huge maps of 
each level. I still have them, you 
know, these giant desk-sized pieces 
of graph paper covered in platform 
diagrams and comments like 
“Health potion here!”. 

Forward in time and - oh! - 
there’s Ultima Underworld, the 
greatest RPG ever made, except for 
Underworld 2. Actually being able 
to have conversations with the vari- 
ous tribes of monsters that lurked 


difficult to isolate any one particular 
scene or puzzle because everything 
was so contingent upon everything 
else, they all linked together perfect- 
ly. That’s what made it so wonderful 
and, surely, still the benchmark for 
ingeniously contrived, surreal 
adventure gaming. 

Accelerating rapidly back to the 
present, 1 spy Descent lurking 
furtively in a shadowy corner. 
Doom never captured my imagina- 
tion in quite the way it obviously 
did to other people. I mean, I 
enjoyed it and all, but Descent was 
the ist-person shoot 'em up that 
took over my life. I can still recall 
the immense thrill I felt when I 
realised that, after weeks of hair- 
torn frustration, I was finally able 
to control the damn thing properly. 
Soon after I was revelling in the 
fact that it was the most frighten- 
ing game I’d ever played. 

The Last Express flashes into 
view for a fraction of a second, 
before I regain consciousness. 
Standing up, I dust myself off, 
straighten my shirt, and hand thi: 
article to an oblivious Ben. 

David Wildgoi 


Memory lane here 
we come. 

Top - Formula One 
Grand Prix, Descent 
and Prince of Persia 
lockwise from right- 
Uima Underworld, 
ast Express and Day 
f the Tentacle. 


-vs «rr t-x 

^<+0 TH 


SWJtCh 


it :p 


T 


mm 


E&T 1 










[ 




YET TO BE CLASSIFIED BY 
THE Of FICE Of FILM 
1 LITERATURE 
CLASSIfICATION 






Qygn 




Available in July 


Proudly distributed fry 

" ROADSHOW 
INTERACTIVE 


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